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BISMARCK 


m  TEE 


FRANCO-GERMAN   WAR. 


l^Sos^^ 


BISMARCK 


IN  THB 


FEANCO-GERMAN  WAR. 


1870-1871. 


A  UTHORISED  TRANSLA  TION  FROM  THE  GERMAN  OP 

dr./moritz  busch. 


(ABRIDGED. 


CHICAGO  X 
BELFORDS,    CLAKKE   ft   CO. 

MDCCCLXXIX. 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  L 


Page. 


Departure  of  the  Chanoellor — I  follow  him  to  Saarbrucken — Journey 
continued  to  the  French  frontier — ^The  mobilised  Foreign 
Office 9 


CHAPTER  n. 
From  the  frontier  to  Gravelotte     ...  •  •       •       17 

CHAPTER  III. 
Commeroy — Bar-le-Duo — Clermont  in  Argonne   .        •        »        ,       •       36 

CHAPTER  IV. 

"We  turn  northwards — ^The   Chancellor  in   Rezonville — Battle  and 

Battle-field  of  Beaumont 50 

CHAPTER  V. 
The  day  of  Sedan — Bismarck  and  Napoleon  at  Dorchery    .       ,       ,        66 

CHAPTER  VI. 
From  the  ^leuse  to  the  Marne      ........        81 


VI.  CONTENTS. 

% 

CHAPTER  VII. 

Pagb. 

Bismarck  and  Favre  in  Hante-Maison — A  fortnight  in  Rothschild's 

Chateau 94 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

The  Journey  to  Versailles — The  House  of  Madame  Jess^ — Our  usual 

Life  there .120 


CHAPTER  IX. 
Autumn  Days  in  Versailles   .        .        .        .        •        .        •      .  •        .      128 

CHAPTER  X. 
Thiers  and  the  First  Negotiations  for  an  Armistice     .        .        •       •      155 

CHAPTER  XL 
Increasing  Anxiety  for  Decisive  Action  in  several  directions      .        .      192 

CHAPTER  XIL 

The  DifBculty  in  the  Reichstag  about  the  Convention  with  Bavaria 

removed — ^The  Bombai'dment  put  off 209 

CHAPTER  XIIL 
Prospects  before  Paris  improve 236 

CHAPTER  XIV. 

Chaudordy  and  Facts — Officers  breaking  their  Parole — French  Mis- 

constiyctions — The  Crown  Prince  entertained  by  the  Chief      .      256 

CHAPTER  XV. 
First  Weeks  of  the  Bombardment         .......      286 


CONTENTS.  Vll. 

CHAPTER  XVL 

Page. 

The  Last  Weeks  before  the  Capitulation  of  Paris        ....      310 

CHAPTER  XVII. 
Xegotiationa  for  the  Capitulation  of  Paris    ...••.      329 

CHAPTER  XVIIl. 

From  Gambetta's  Retirement  to  the  Conclusion  of  the  Peace  Pre- 
liminaries    .       .       • 356 


BISMARCK 


IK  THE 


FRANCO-GERMAN   WAR. 


CHAPTER  I, 


DEPARTURE  OF  THE  CHANCELLOR — I  FOLLOW  HIM  TO  SAAR- 
BRUCKEX — JOURNEY  CONTINUED  TO  THE  FRENCH  FRONTIER 
THE   MOBILISED    FOREIGN   OFFICE. 


ON  the  31st  July,  1870,  at  half-past  five  in  the  afternoon, 
the  Chancellor,  who  had  some  days  before  partaken  of 
the  Sacrament  in  his  own  room,  drove  from  lus  residence  in  the 
Wilhelm  Strasse  to  the  station,  accompanied  by  his  wife  and 
daughter,  in  order  to  start  with  King  William  for  the  Seat  of 
War,  in  the  first  instance  for  Mainz.  Several  Councillors  of 
the  Foreign  Office,  a  secretary  of  the  despatch  department  of 
the  Central  Bureau,  two  experts  in  secret  ciphering,  and  three 
or  four  messengers  of  the  Chancellor's  department  were  ap- 
pointed to  go  with  him.  The  rest  of  us  followed  him  only  with 
our  good  wishes,  as,  helmet  on  head,  he  walked  down  the  stairs 
between  the  two  Sphinxes,  through  the  great  hall,  and  stepped 
into  the  carriage.      I  had  resigned  myself  to  taking  part  in  tlio 

a 


10  Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War. 

war  only  on  maps  and  in  newspapers.  But  a  much  better  fate 
was  in  store  for  me. 

On  the  evening  of  the  6th  of  August  the  Government  re- 
ceived the  telegram  announcing  the  \ictory  at  Worth.  Half  an 
hour  afterwards,  work  being  over,  I  carried  the  joyful  news, 
still  fresh  and  warm,  to  a  company  of  friends  who  were  waiting 
in  expectation  in  a  wine-shop  in  Potsdam  Street.  Every  one 
knows  how  Germans  celebrate  good  news,  and  this  was  so  good 
that  it  was  celebrated  by  many  too  well,  and  by  most  of  us  at 
any  rate,  too  long.  In  consequence  I  was  still  in  bed  when 
next  morning  a  chancery  messenger  appeai-ed,  bringing  the 
copy  of  a  telegraphic  despatch,  requiring  me  to  set  out  for 
headquarters  in  the  course  of  the  day. 

Benignant  fate  !  say  I.  So  quickly  were  my  few  necessaries 
collected,  that  by  midday  I  had  my  railway-pass,  my  passport, 
and  my  military  biUet ;  and  by  eight  o'clock  in  the  evening  I 
was  joined  by  the  two  companions  ordered  by  the  Minister  to 
accompany  me.  AVe  travelled  by  the  Anhalt  railway,  going  by 
Halle,  Nordhausen,  and  Cassel,  anxious,  by  God's  help,  to 
reach  headquarters  as  fast  as  possible. 

We  began  our  journey  in  a  first-class  coupe,  but  we  came 
down  to  a  third-class,  and  at  last  to  a  luggage-van.  Every- 
where there  were  long  delays,  which  seemed  longer  to  our  im- 
i  atience  than  they  really  were.  We  crossed  the  Rhine  by 
aight  As  the  day  broke  we  found,  lying  beside  us  on  the  floor 
■of  the  van,  a  well-dressed  gentleman,  who  was  talking  English 
to  some  one,  whom  we  afterwards  discovered  to  be  his  servant. 
This  turned  out  to  be  the  London  banker,  Mr.  Deichmann,  who 
■^vas  bound  for  headquai'ters,  in  the  hope  of  obtaining  leave  from 
Boon  to  serve  as  a  volunteer  in  a  cavalry  regiment,  for  which 
purpose  he  had  brought  his  horse  with  him.  The  train  being 
now  brought  to  %  stand  in  consequence  of  the  many  others 
.blocking  up  the  line  in  front  of  us,  we  drove  across  the  plain, 
'hy  Deichmann's  advice,  in  a  fast-trotting  country  car  to  Neu- 
;stadt  in  the  Palatinate,  which  we  found  swarming  with  soldiers 
— Bavarian  riflemen,  Prussian  red  hussars,  Saxons,  and  other 
■uniforms.  From  Neustadt  we  proceeded,  amidst  much  discom- 
fort, to  St.  Johann,  a  suburb  of  Saarbriicken  lying  on  the  right 
bank  of  the  Saar,  whex'e  we  saw  few  traces  of  the  French  bom- 
bardment of  a  few  days  before,  though  it  presented  a  lively 
picture,  in  other  respects,  of  a  state  of  war.  A  medley  of  for- 
age-carts, baggage-waggons,  soldiers    on    horse    and  on  foot, 


Cipher  Despatch.  H 

Knights  of  St.  John  with  their  crosses,  and  such  like,  hurried 
through  the  streets.  Hessian  troops,  dragoons  and  ait.llery, 
were  marching  alonj,  singing  the  while : 

"E«d  d.  w  1  that  lights  me  to  my  early  -^v.  Te." 

At  the  inn  where  we  alighted,  I  heard  that  the  Chancellor 
was  still  in  the  place,  and  had  taken  up  his  quarters  at  the 
house  of  one  Haldy,  a  merchant  and  manufacturer.  In  spite 
of  all  difficulties,  I  had  thus  happily  reached  the  desired  haven. 
It  was  not  a  moment  too  soon,  for  as  I  was  going  to  Haldy's 
house  to  report  myself  I  heard  on  the  stairs  from  Count  Bis- 
marck-Bohlen,  the  Minister's  cousin,  that  we  were  to  move  on 
immediately  in  the  afternoon. 

I  took  leave  of  my  fellow-travellers  from  Berlin,  for  whom 
there  was  no  room  in  the  Minister's  carriages,  and  of  the  Lon- 
don banker.  I  then  moved  my  baggsCge  from  the  inn  to  the 
cook's  van,  which,  with  other  vehicles,  had  crossed  over  at  the 
Saar  bridge.  Having  arranged  this,  I  turned  back  to  Haldy's 
house,  where,  in  the  ante-room,  I  presented  myself  to  the 
Chancellor,  who  was  just  coming  out  of  his  own  room  on  his 
way  to  the  King.  I  then  sought  out  the  newly-established  Bu- 
reau, that  I  might  hear  whether  there  was  anything  for  me  to 
do.  There  was  plenty  to  do  !  The  gentlemen  had  their  hands 
full ;  and  I  immediately  undertook  the  translation  of  the  Queen 
of  England's  speech  on  opening  Parliament,  which  had  just 
come,  for  the  use  of  the  King.  Of  the  highest  interest,  even 
though  I  did  not  quite  undei-stand  it,  was  the  declai-ation  in  a 
despatch,  which  they  gave  me  to  dictate  in  secret^  cipher  to  one 
of  the  experts,  that  we  on  our  side  should  Qot  be  content  with 
the  mere  overthrow  of  Napoleon.  , 

It  seemed  like  a  miracle  !  Strassburg  !  Perhaps  the 
Vosges  !  Who  could  have  even  dreamed  of  this  three  weeks 
ago  1 

A  little  before  one  o'clock,  in  the  bright  sunshine,  the  car- 
riages drove  to  the  door,  all  Avith  four  horses,  with  soldiers  for 
outriders,  one  for  the  Chancellor,  one  for  the  councillors  and 
Count  Bismarck-Bohlen,  one  for '  the  secretary  and  the  two 
cipherers.  After  the  Minister  had  taken  his  seat  with  Pri\-y- 
Councillor  Abeken  and  his  cousin,  and  the  two  other  councillors 
had  mounted  their  horses,  the  others  followed  Mith  their  port- 
folios beside  them.     I  took  a  seat  in  the  carriage  of  the  coun- 


12  Bisniarck  in  the  Franco-German  War. 

cillors,  as  I  always  did  afterwards,  whenever  those  gentlemen 
I'ode  on  horseback.  Five  minutes  afterwards  we  crossed  the 
river  and  entered  the  long  main  street  of  Saarbriicken.  From 
thence  the  poplar-shaded  road  led  up  to  Forbach,  past  the  battle- 
field of  the  6th  of  August,  and  in  half  an  hour  after  leaving 
St.  Johann  we  were  on  French  soil.  Of  the  bloody  battle 
which  had  raged  here  just  on  the  frontier,  five  days  before, 
there  were  still  many  traces  to  be  seen  :  trunks  stripped  by  the 
balls,  knapsacks  thrown  away,  tattered  garments,  linen  rags 
lying  about  the  stubble  fields,  trodden-down  potato  fields,  broken 
wheels,  holes  made  by  shells,  little  wooden  crosses  roughly  tied 
together  to  show  the  place  where  some  of  the  fallen  were  in- 
terred, and  so  on.  But,  so  far  as  we  could  see,  all  the  dead 
were  already  buried. 

And  here  at  the  beginning  of  our  journey  through  Finance,  I 
will  interrupt  my  narrative  for  a  little,  to  say  a  few  words  arbout 
the  mobilised  Foreign  Office,  and  the  mode  and  fashion  in 
which  the  Chancellor  travelled,  worked,  and  lived  with  his  peo- 
ple. The  Minister  had  in  his  suite  the  acting  Privy-Councillors 
Abeken  and  von  Keudell,  Count  Hatzfeld,  and  Count  Bismarck- 
Bohlen.  There  were  besides,  the  private  secretary  Bolsing 
from  the  Central  Bureau,  the  cipherers  Willisch  and  Saint- 
Blanquart,  and  lastly  myself.  Engel,  Theiss,  and  Eigenbrodt 
acted  as  messengers  and  attendants ;  the  last  of  Avhom  Avas  re- 
placed in  the  beginning  of  September  by  the  active  and  intelli- 
gent Krtiger.  We  were  accompanied  by  Herr  Leverstrom  in  a 
similar  capacity,  the  "  black  horseman,"  so  well  known  in  the 
streets  of  Berlin  as  a  government  qpurier.  For  the  care  of  our 
bodies  we  had  a  cook,  whose  name  was  Schulz  or  Schultz.  Let 
it  be  noticed,  how  exact  I  am  trying  to  be,  and  that  I  rob  no 
one  of  his  name  or  title  !  In  Ferrieres  the  group  of  Council- 
lors Avas  completed  by  Lothar  Bucher,  and  a  third  cipherer, 
Herr  Wiehr,  also  joined  us  there.  Holnstein,  young  Count 
Wartensleben  and  Privy-Councillor  Wagner  joined  us  at  Ver- 
sailles. Bolsing,  being  unwell,  was  replaced  there  for  some 
weeks  by  Wollmann,  and  business  increased  to  such  an  extent 
that  we  required  the  services  of  a  fourth  secret  cipherer,  as  well 
as  of  one  or  two  additional  messengers  whose  names  have 
escaped  me.  The  kindness  of  our  "  Chief,"  as  the  Chancellor 
was  called  in  ordinary  conversation,  by  those  belonging  to  the 
Foreign  Office,  had  arranged  things  so  that  his  fellow-workers, 
both  secretaries  and  councellors,  were  all  to  a  certain  extent 


The  Cliancellor's  Uniform.  13 

members  of  his  household.  We  lived,  whenever  circumstances 
would  permit,  in  the  same  house  with  him,  and  had  the  honor 
of  dining  at  his  table. 

The  Chancellor  wore  uniform  during  the  whole  of  the  war- 
generally  the  undress  of  the  yellow  regiment  of  heavy  Land- 
wehr  cavalry,  vnth  its  white  cap  and  great  top-boots.  When 
riding,  after  a  battle,  or  in  watching  its  course,  he  wore  a  black 
leather  case,  fastened  by  a  strap  round  the  chest  and  back, 
which  held  a  field  glass,  and  sometimes  a  revolver  and  a  sword. 
During  the  first  months  he  generally  wore  as  a  decoration  the 
«ross  of  the  order  of  the  Red  Eagle  ;  afterwards  he  also  wore 
the  Iron  Cross.  I  never  saw  him  but  once,  in  Versailles,  in  a 
dressing-gown,  and  then  he  was  not  well — his  health  was  ex- 
cellent through  the  whole  campaign.  During  the  journey  he 
generally  drove  with  Councillor  Abeken,  since  dead,  and  once, 
for  several  days  in  succession,  with  me  also.  As  to  quarters, 
he  \vas  most  easily  satisfied,  and  even  where  better  were  to  be 
had,  he  put  up  with  the  most  modest  accommodation.  At 
Versailles,  when  colonels  and  majors  had  splendidly  furnished 
suites  of  apartments,  the  Chancellor,  all  the  five  months  we 
were  there,  was  content  with  two  little  rooms,  of  which  one  was 
study  as  well  as  bedchamber,  and  the  other,  on  the  ground  floor, 
though  neither  spacious  nor  elegant,  served  as  a  reception-room. 
Once,  in  the  school-house  at  Clermont,  in  Argonne,  where  we 
stayed  some  days,  he  had  not  even  a  bed,  so  that  we  had  to 
make  him  up  one  on  the  floor. 

During  the  journey  we  generally  drove  close  behind  the 
King's  carriage.  We  started  about  ten  in  the  morning,  and 
usually  accomplished  nearly  forty  English  miles  a  day.  On 
arriving  at  our  quarters  for  the  night  we  at  once  established  a 
Bureau,  in  which  work  was  seldom  wanting,  especially  when 
the  field  telegraph  reached  us ;  by  its  means  the  Chancellor 
again  became — what,  indeed,  he  always  was  at  this  time,  -with 
brief  interruptions — the  centre  of  the  civilized  world  of  Eiirope. 
Even  where  we  only  halted  for  one  night,  restlessly  active  him- 
self, he  kept  all  about  him  in  constant  employment  till  quite 
late.  Orderlies  came  and  went,  couriers  arrived  with  letters 
and  telegrams,  and  were  immediately  sent  ofi"  again.  Accord- 
ing to  the  directions  of  the  Chief,  the  Councillors  prepared 
notes  and  orders ;  the  clerks  copied  and  registered,  ciphered 
and  deciphered.  Material  streamed  in  from  all  points  of  the 
compass  in   the   shape  of   reports,    questions,  articles  in  the 


14  Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War. 

newspapers,  and  such  like,  most  of  which  required  immediate 
attention. 

Among  the  councillors  the  one  who  was  fastest  at  work  before 
the  arrival  of  Bucher,  was,  undoubtedly,  Abeken.  He  was  in 
fact  a  very  power  in  himself.  From  long  years  of  service  he 
was  thoroughly  acquainted  with  all  the  ins  and  outs  of  busi- 
ness, a  lover  of  routine,  furnished  with  a  fine  store  of  phrases, 
which  dropped  from  his  pen  without  much  necessity  for  thought. . 
Master  of  several  languages,  so  far,  at  any  rate,  as  was  needed 
for  the  work  required  of  him,  he  seemed  made  to  put  the 
thoughts  of  his  Chief  into  proper  drese.  He  did  it  with  the 
rapidity  of  a  steam-engine.  The  substance  was  supplied  by  the 
genius  and  knowledge  of  the  Minister,  who  occasionally  im- 
proved the  style  in  which  Abeken  had  presented  his  ideas. 

The  almost  superhuman  capacity  of  the  Chancellor  for  work, 
sometimes  creating,  and  sometimes  appropriating  and  sifting 
the  labours  of  others,  his  power  of  solving  the  most  difficult 
problems,  of  at  once  seeing  the  right  thing,  and  of  ordering 
only  what  could  be  practically  done,  was,  perhaps,  never  so 
wonderfully  displayed  as  at  this  time ;  and  this  inexhaustible 
power  of  work  was  the  more  remarkable  as  his  strength  was 
kept  up  with  so  little  sleep.  The  Minister  lived  in  the  field 
much  as  he  did  at  home.  Unless  an  expected  battle  summoned 
him  before  daybreak  to  the  army  at  the  side  of  the  King,  he 
generally  rose  late,  as  a  rule  about  ten  o'clock.  But  he  passed 
the  night  sleepless,  and  fell  over  only  when  the  morning  light 
shown  through  his  window.  Often,  hardly  out  of  bed,  and  not 
yet  dressed,  he  began  to  think  and  work,  to  read  and  make 
notes  on  despatches,  to  study  the  newspapers,  to  gi^-e  instruc- 
tions to  the  Councillors  and  other  fellow-workers,  to  put  ques- 
tions or  state  problems  of  the  most  various  kinds,  even  to  WTite 
or  dictate.  Later  in  the  day  there  were  visits  to  receive,  or 
audiences  to  give,  or  a  statement  to  be  made  to  the  King.  Then 
came  the  study  of  despatches  and  maps,  the  correction  of  papers 
he  had  ordered  to  be  prepared,  the  jotting  down  of  ideas  with 
the  well-known  big  pencil,  the  composition  of  letters,  the  news 
to  be  telegraphed  or  sent  to  the  papers  for  publication,  and  in 
the  midst  of  all  this  the  reception  of  unavoidable  visitors,  who- 
must  sometimes  have  been  far  from  welcome.  Tt  was  not  till 
two  or  often  three  o'clock  that  the  Chancellor,  in  places  where 
a  halt  of  any  length  was  made,  allowed  himself  a  little  breath- 
ing-time ;  then  he  generally  took  a  ride  in  the  neighborhood. 


The  Chancellors  Table.  15 

Afterwards  he  went  to  work  again  till  dinner  at  five  or  sist 
o'clock,  and  in  an  hour  and  a  half  at  the  latest  he  was  back 
once  more  in  his  room  at  his  writing-table,  midnight  frequently 
finding  him  reading  or  putting  his  thoughts  on  paper. 

The  Count  diflfered  from  other  men  in  the  matter  of  sleep, 
and  he  arranged  his  meal  times  in  a  peculiar  manner.  Early 
in  the  morning  he  took  a  cup  of  tea,  and  perhaps  one  or  two 
eggs  ;  after  that,  generally  nothing  till  dinner  in  the  evening. 
He  very  seldom  took  a  second  breakfast,  and  then  only  tea, 
which  was  served  between  nine  and  ten  o'clock.  Thus,  with 
very  few  exceptions,  he  ate  only  once  during  the  f our-and-twen- 
ty  hours,  but  then,  like  Frederick  the  Great,  he  ate  plentifully 
and  Avith  appetite.  Diplomatists  proveebially  keep  a  good  table, 
and,  I  am  told  come  next  to  prelates.  It  is  part  of  their  daily 
business  to  entertain  distinguished  guests,  who,  for  some  reason 
or  other,  have  to  be  put  into  a  good  humor  by  the  contents  of 
a  well-stocked  cellar  and  the  efforts  of  a  skilful  cook.  Count 
von  Bismarck  therefore  kept  a  good  table,  which,  when  circum- 
stances permitted,  rose  to  the  rank  of  a  very  good  table.  This 
Avas  the  case,  for  instance,  at  Rheims,  Meaux,  Ferrieres,  and 
Versailles,  where  the  genius  of  the  artist  who  wore  the  livery 
of  the  household  prepared  breakfasts  and  dinners  for  us,  t<> 
which  persons  accustomed  to  simple  fare  did  justice,  feeling  al- 
most as  if  they  were  sitting  in  Abraham's  bosom,  especially 
when,  beside  the  other  good  gifts  of  God,  champagne  was  not- 
wanting  in  the  list  of  drinkables.  Tor  such  feasts  the  travel- 
ling kitchen  contained  pewter-plates,  tumblers  of  some  silver- 
like metal,  gilt  inside,  and  cups  of  the  same  kind.  During  the^ 
last  five  months  of  the  campaign,  presents  from  home  added 
grace  to  our  hospitable  board  :  for  home,  as  it  was  right  it 
should,  thought  loATngly  of  its  Chancellor,  and  liberally  sent  him 
dainty  gifts  both  solid  and  fluid,  corned  geese,  game,  fish,  phea- 
sants, cakes,  capital  beer,  and  fine  wine,  with  many  other  excel- 
lent things. 

To  conclude  this  chapter  I  remark  that,  beside  the  Chancel- 
lor, only  the  Councilloi-s  at  first  wore  uniform,  von  Keudell  that 
of  the  Blue  Cuirassiers,  Count  Bismarck-Bohlen  that  of  a  regi- 
ment of  Dragoon  Guards,  Counts  Hatzfeld  and  Abeken  the  un- 
dress uniform  of  officers  in  the  Foreign  Office.  It  was  after- 
wards suggested  that  aU  persons  belonging  to  the  Minister's- 
permanent  staff,  not  of  course  the  two  first-named  gentlemen,^ 
who  were  also  military  officers,  should  wear  this  dress.       The 


16  Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War, 

Chief  consented,  and  so  Versailles  saw  the  chancery  messengers 
in  a  costume  which  consisted  of  a  dark  blue  coat,  with  two  rows 
of  buttons,  with  black  velvet  collar  and  cuffs,  a  cap  of  the  same 
color,  and  for  the  Councillors,  secretaries  and  cipherers,  a  sword 
with  a  gold  porte-epee.  In  this  costume  old  Privy  Councillor 
Abeken,  who  made  his  horse  prance  about  bravely,  had  quite  a 
militaiy  air,  and  I  think  he  knew  this  and  liked  it.  He  was 
well  pleased  to  look  like  an  officer,  just  as  he  once  travelled 
through  the  Holy  Land  in  Oriental  costume,  without  under 
standing  either  Turkish  or  Arabic 


Forbach,  17 


CHAPTER  II. 

FROM  THE  FRONTIER  TO  GATELOTTK 


IN  the  preceding  chapter  I  halted  at  the  French  frontier. 
That  we  had  crossed  it,  was  evident  from  the  names  of  the 
villages.  "  Departement  de  la  Moselle  "  was  to  be  read  on  all 
the  way-posts.  The  white  road  swarmed  with  carts  and  wag- 
gons and  troops  on  the  march,  while  soldiers  were  quartered 
everyM'here.  In  the  neighborhood,  which  was  hilly  and  part- 
ly wooded,  little  camps  were  to  be  seen  rising  up  here  and 
there,  with  horses  fastened  to  picket-posts,  guns,  ammunition 
waggons,  forage-carts,  holes  for  the  cooking  fires,  and  soldiers 
in  their  shirt-sleeves,  busied  in  the  preparation  of  food. 

In  about  two  hours  we  reached  Forbach,  which  we  passed 
through  -ndthout  stopping.  In  the  streets  where  w6  drove,  we 
observed  that  while  the  goods  and  trades  of  the  different  shops 
were  described  in  French,  the  names  of  the  proprietors  were 
mostly  German  :  for  instance,  "  Schwarz,  Boulanger."  Many 
of  the  inhabitants  who  were  standing  before  their  doors  saluted 
the  carriages  as  they  passed ;  most  of  them  looked  very  cross, 
which  did  not  add  to  the  charm  of  their  appearance,  but  was 
very  easily  explained,  for  they  had  evidently  more  soldiers 
quartered  on  them  than  they  liked.  Eveiy  window  was  full  of 
blue  Prussians. 

We  went  up  hill  and  down  dale,  through  woods  and  vUlages, 
till  we  I'eached  Saint-Avoid,  where,  about  half-past  four 
o'clock,  we  were  quartered  with  the  Chancellor  in  the  house  of 
a  M.  Laity,  No.  301,  in  the  Rue  des  Charrons.  It  was  a  one- 
storied  house  with  white  blinds,  and  though  it  had  only  five 
windows  in  front  it  went  back  a  longway,and  was  tolerably  roomy. 
It  opened  behind  on  a  well-planted  garden,  with  trim  walks 
among  fruit  and  vegetables.  The  day  before  our  arrival  the 
possessor,  apparently  a  retired  officer,  and  well-to-do,  had  gone 


18  Bismarck  in  the  tranco- German  War. 

away  with  his  wife,  and  had  left  an  old  woman,  who  could 
speak  nothing  but  French,  and  a  maid.  The  Minister  had  the 
one  front-room ;  the  rest  of  the  party  shared  the  rooms  open- 
ing on  the  passage  leading  to  the  back  parts  of  the  house.  In 
half  an  hour,  the  Bureau  was  established  in  the  first  of  these 
back  rooms,  which  served  also  as  a  sleeping-room  for  Keudell. 
The  next  room,  which  looked  out  on  the  garden,  was  given 
to  Abeken  and  me.  He  slept  in  a  bed  placed  in  a  recess  in  the 
wall.  At  the  head  of  the  bed  there  was  a  crucifix,  and  over 
the  feet  a  Madonna  ^vith  a  bleeding  heart.  The  people  in  the 
house,  therefore,  were  thorough  Catholics.  They  made  a  very 
comfortable  bed  up  for  me  on  the  floor.  The  Bureau  was  at 
once  set  to  work  ;  and  as  there  happened  to  be  nothing  to  be 
done  in  my  particular  line  I  endeavoured  to  help  in  decipher- 
ing some  despatches,  a  task  which  presented  no  great  difficulty. 

After  seven  we  dined  with  the  Count  in  the  little  parlor 
next  his  room,  the  window  of  which  looked  into  a  court  prettily 
ornamented  with  flower-beds.  The  conversation  at  table 
was  lively,  the  Minister  taking  the  lead.  He  thought  a  sur- 
prise not  impossible  ;  for,  as  he  had  seen  for  himself,  our  out- 
posts were  only  three  English  miles  from  the  town,  and  very  far 
apart.  He  had  asked  at  an  outpost  where  the  next  one  was, 
but  the  men  did  not  know.  Afterwards  he  remarked  that  in 
his  flight  our  landlord  had  left  all  his  drawers  full  of  clean 
linen,  and  added  :  "If  the  people  from  the  ambulances  come 
here,  they  will  cut  up  his  wife's  fine  chemises  to  make  lint  and 
bandages,  and  very  properly  too.  But  then,  of  course,  it  will 
be  said  that  Count  Bismarck  carried  them  off"." 

We  then  talked  of  the  disposition  of  the  troops,  and  the 
Minister  said,  "  Steinmetz  has  shown  himself  very  self-willed 
and  disobedient.  He  will,"  said  he,  in  conclusion,  "come  ta 
grief  with  his  obstinancy,  in  spite  of  the  laurels  he  won  at 
Skalitz." 

We  had  on  the  table  cognac,  red  wine,  and  sparkling  Mainz 
wine.  Some  one  spoke  of  beer,  and  remarked  that  we  had 
none.  The  Minister  rejoined  :  "  That  is  of  no  consequence. 
The  wide-spread  use  of  beer  is  much  to  be  deplored.  Beer- 
drinking  makes  men  stupid,  lazy,  and  impotent.  It  is  the 
cause  of  all  the  democratic  pot-politics  which  people  talk  over 
it.     Good  corn  brandy  would  be  better." 

I  do  not  know,  how  or  in  what  connection  the  subject  of  the 
Mormons  came  up,  but  the  conversation  turned  on  the  question, 


Dining  with  the  Count.  19 

whether  they  and  their  many  wives  should  be  tolerated.  The 
Count  took  the  opportunity  to  express  his  own  opinion  on  re- 
ligious liberty,  and  declared  himself  very  decidedly  for  it ;  only 
it  must,  he  said,  be  impartially  managed.  "  Every  man 
must  be  saved  after  his  own  fashion,"  he  added,  "I  will  one 
day  agitate  this  question,  and  the  Reichstag  will  certainly  vote 
^vith  me.  But  the  Church  property  must  of  course  remain 
with  those  who  stand  by  the  old  Church  which  acquired  it. 
A  man  who  secedes  from  the  Church  ought  to  be  able  to  make  a. 
sa<;riiice  for  his  con^^ction,  or  rather  for  his  unbelief.  It  does^ 
not  offend  us  when  Catholics  or  Jews  are  orthodox.  Where 
Lutherans  are  so  it  does  ;  and  the  Church  is  constantly  accused 
of  a  '  persecuting  spirit '  when  she  casts  out  the  non-orthodox  ; 
but  people  consider  it  quite  en  regie  that  the  orthodox  should 
be  persecuted  and  maligned  by  the  press  and  in   their  lives." 

With  the  morning  there  arrived  a  green  orderly  from  Berlin 
■^vith  dispatches.  Such  messengers  have  winged  feet,  yet  this 
one  had  not  been  quicker  than  I  in  my  fright  lest  I  should  ar- 
rive too  late.  He  had  started  on  Monday,  the  8th  of  August, 
and  had  changed  horses  several  times,  and  yet  it  had  taken  him 
quite  four  days  and  nights  to  reach  us.  Early  in  the  morning 
I  again  assisted  the  cipherers  with  their  work.  Later,  while 
the  Cliief  was  with  the  King,  I  went  with  the  Councillors  to 
see  the  fine  large  church  in  the  town,  over  which  the  sacristan 
conducted  us.  In  the  afternoon,  when  the  Minister  rode  out, 
we  inspected  the  Prussian  park  of  artillery,  placed  on  a  hill  be- 
hind the  town. 

The  Chancellor  returned  by  four  o'clock,  when  we  dined. 
He  had  been  a  long  way  to  find  his  two  sons  who  were  serving 
as  privates  in  the  Dragoon  guards,  and  he  had  learned  that  the 
German  Cavalry  had  already  gone  forward  to  the  upper  Moselle. 
He  seemed  to  be  in  good  humor,  perhaps  because  our  cause 
was  prospering,  and  quite  inclined  to  talk.  When  the  con- 
versation turned  on  mythology,  he  said  that  "he  never 
could  bear  Apollo.  He  had  flayed  Marsyas  from  conceit  and 
envy,  and  for  the  same  reasons  had  killed  K  iobe's  children.  He 
is,"  he  continued,  "the  very  type  of  a  Frenchman  ;  that  is,  one 
who  cannot  bear  that  another  should  play  the  flute  as  well  or 
better  than  he.  That  he  had  sided  with  the  Trojans,  did  not 
prejudice  him  in  his  favour.  Honest  Vulcan  would  have  been 
his  man,  and  Neptune  would  have  suited  him  still  better,  per- 
haps because  of  the  qxKOs  ego  /"     He  did  not,  however,  say  this. 


20  Bismarch  in  the  Franco-German  War-. 

After  dinner  we  had  to  telegraph  the  following  joyful  mes- 
sage to  Berlin  :  "By  the  7th  August,  we  had  above  10,000 
prisoners.  The  effect  of  the  victory  at  Saarbriicken  turns  out 
to  be  much  greater  than  we  at  first  believed.  They  left  behind 
a  pontoon  train,  with  about  forty  waggons,  nearly  10,000 
blankets,  which  are  now  of  great  use  for  the  wounded,  and  a 
store  of  tobacco  worth  a  million  of  francs.  Pfalzburg  and  the 
pass  over  the  Vosges  at  that  place  are  in  our  hands.  Bitsch  is 
watched  by  a  company,  as  it  has  a  garrison  of  only  300 
Mobile  Guards.  Our  cavalry  is  already  close  to  Luneville." 
A  little  later  we  were  able  to  send  another  pleasant  mes- 
sage, namely,  that  the  Minister  of  Finance  in  Paris,  evi- 
dently in  consequence  of  the  approach  of  the  German  army, 
had  issued  a  proclamation  warning  the  French  people  not 
to  keep  their  money  at  home,  but  to  send  it  all  to  the  Bank 
of  France. 

On  the  13th  of  August,  we  arrived  at  Faulquemont,  or,  as  it 
is  now  written,  Falkenberg.  Like  that  Avhich  we  had  traversed 
at  Saarbriicken,  the  country  through  which  we  drove  was  hilly, 
often  covered  with  brushwood,  and  equally  full  of  martial 
sights.  The  road  was  covered  with  trains  of  waggons,  artillery, 
ambulances,  gensdarmes  and  orderlies.  Long  lines  of  infantry 
were  marching  on  the  road  and  to  the  right  across  the  stubble 
fields  to  follow  the  course  of  the  columns,  marked  out  there 
by  poles  with  wisps  of  straw  round  them.  Sometimes  we 
saw  a  man  fall  down  in  the  ranks  ;  and  here  and  there  stragglers 
lay  in  the  ditches,  for  the  August  sun  shone  fiercely  from  a 
cloudless  sky.  The  troops  who  were  before  us,  and,  latterly, 
mostly  behind  us,  were  the  84th  Regiment  (Schleswig-Holstein- 
ers),  and  the  36tli.  At  last  we  got  out  of  the  thick  cloud  of 
yellow  dust  which  rose  from  their  steps,  and  entered  the  little 
town,  where  I  was  quartered  on  one  Schmidt,  a  baker.  The 
Minister  had  disappeared  in  the  clouds  of  dust,  and  it  was 
some  time  before  I  learned  from  one  of  the  Councillors  re- 
maining in  Falkenberg  that  he  had  gone  on  with  the  King 
to  the  village  of  Herny,  five  English  miles  fui-ther. 

Falkenbei'g  is  a  place  of  some  2,000  inhabitants,  with  only 
one  tolerably  long  principal  street,  and  sundry  little  narrow 
lanes  on  either  side.  It  lies  on  the  ridge  of  a  gently-sloping 
hill.  Nearly  the  whole  of  the  day  troops  continued  to  march 
through.  Among  them  were  some  Hessian  infantry.  The 
Saxons  were  stationed  close  by.     They  sent  their  sutlers  even 


Divine  Service.  21 

in  the  night-time  to  my  baker  to^et  bread,  who  was  soon  left 
in  consequence  without  any. 

The  people  with  whom  I  was  quartered  were  very  polite  and 
agreeable.  They  cleared  out  for  me  the  best  of  their  rooms, 
and  though  I  begged  them  not  to  trouble  themselves  on  my  ac- 
count, they  brought  me  a  good  breakfast  with  red  wine,  and 
coffee  in  the  French  manner,  in  a  little  bowl  with  a  silver  spoon, 
with  which  I  was  to  drink  it ;  and  this  they  made  me  take  in 
spite  of  my  reluctance.  The  woman  spoke  only  broken  Ger- 
man, but  the  man  talked  fluently,  though  in  a  German  patois, 
and  ynXh.  here  and  there  a  word  of  French.  The  pictures  in 
their  rooms  showed  them  to  be  Catholics. 

Sunday,  August  14- — After  luncheon,  we  followed  the  Minis- 
ter to  Hemy.  The  sky  over  our  heads  was  of  the  deepest 
blue,  and  the  fields  reeked  from  the  scorching  heat.  Near  a 
village  on  the  left  of  the  road  some  Hessian  infantry  held  di- 
vine service  in  the  open  air,  the  Catholic  soldiers  in  one  circle, 
the  Protestants  a  little  distance  off  in  another,  each  round  their 
own  clergyman.     The  latter  sang  the  hymn — 

"  Ein,  feste  Burg  ist  unset  Gott," 

Arrived  at  Hemy,  we  found  that  the  Chancellor  had  taken 
up  his  abode  in  the  first  story  of  a  long,  low,  whitewashed 
house,  a  little  aside  from  the  principal  street  where  his  window 
looked  on  to  a  dung  heap.  The  house  was  tolerably  roomy,  so 
that  we  joined  him  there,  and  I  was  again  vnth  Abeken.  Hatz- 
feld's  room  was  also  the  Bureau.  The  King  took  up  his  quarters 
^v^th  the  pastor,  near  a  fine  old  church  the  ^vindows  of  ■v^hich 
Avere  filled  with  painted  glass.  The  village  consists  of  one 
broad  straggling  street,  Avith  a  well-built  mairie,  which  contains 
also  the  parish  school,  and  of  houses  mostly  crowded  close  to- 
gether, looking  at  the  back  into  the  little  railway  station.  Tn 
that  we  found  a  great  deal  of  wanton  destruction,  papers  scat- 
tered about,  books,  torn  up,  and  such  like.  Near  it  some  sol- 
diers were  guarding  two  French  prisoners.  After  four  o'clock 
we  heard  for  several  hours  the  heavy  thunder  of  artillery  from 
the  neighbourhood  of  Metz.  At  tea-time  the  Minister  said, 
"  I  did  not  think  a  month  ago  that  I  should  to-day  drink  tea 
with  you  gentlemen  in  a  peasant's  house  in  Hemy."  Amongst 
other  matters  we  talked  of  Gramont,  and  the  Count  wondered 
that  thi»  strong,  healthy  man,  after  such  unhappy  antecedents, 
had  not  joined  a  regiment,  in  order  to  atone  for  his  stupidity. 


22  Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War. 

He  certainly  was  big  and  sl^j'ong  enough.  *'  I  should  have 
acted  differently  in  1866,  if  things  had  not  gone  well  with  me," 
said  he ;  "I  should  have  joined  a  regiment  at  once;  I  never 
would  have  allowed  myself  io  be  seen  alive." 

When  he  returned  to  his  room,  which  by  the  way  was  a  low, 
countrified  little  parlour  with  very  little  furniture,  I  was  fre- 
quently called  to  receive  orders.  It  seemed  useful  to  enable 
our  illustrated  papers  to  give  a  representation  of  the  storming 
of  the  Spicherenberg.  Then  the  assertion  of  the  Cotistitiitionnel 
had  to  be  contradicted,  according  to  which  the  Prussians 
burned  down  everything  in  their  march  through  France,  and 
left  nothing  but  ruins  behind  them ;  of  which,  with  every  op- 
portunity to  know  the  facts,  we  could  honestly  declare  we  had 
fseen  nothing.  Finally  it  was  desirable  to  counteract  the  Neue 
Freie  Presse^  which  had  hitherto  shown  itself  to  be  friendly  to 
ais,  but  these  last  few  days  its  circulation  had,  according  to  the 
Constitutionnel,  suffered,  perhaps  because  of  its  partiality  to 
the  Prussians,  and  perhaps  because  there  was  something  in  the 
report  that  the  Hungarian  French  party  had  bought  the  jour- 
nal and  had  given  it  another  tone.  "  Say  this,"  said  the  Chan- 
cellor, concluding  his  directions  with  regard  to  another  article 
of  the  Gonstitutio7inel,  "  that  there  has  never  been  the  least 
question  in  the  Ministerial  Council  of  ceding  Saarbriicken  to 
the  French,  the  matter  not  having  been  mentioned  except  in 
confidential  communications ;  and  of  course  a  national  minister 
— one  in  sympathy  with  the  national  feeling — could  not  there- 
fore entertain  it.  Yet  this  rumour  may  have  a  little  founda- 
tion ;  it  may  be  a  misunderstanding,  or  a  perversion  of  the  fact 
that  the  question  was  mooted  and  discussed  in  the  Ministerial 
Council  before  1864  whether  it  might  not  be  advisable  to  make 
over  the  coal-mines  at  Saarbriicken,  which  are  national  prop- 
erty, to  companies.  I  proposed  to  pay  the  cost  of  the  Schles- 
wig-Holstein  war  in  this  way,  but  the  thing  came  to  nothing  in 
consequence  of  the  King's  aversion  to  any  such  transaction." 

Monday,  August  15,  seemed  to  begin  all  at  once  and  unus- 
ually early.  At  daybreak,  by  four  o'clock,  the  attendant  called 
out  in  the  room  where  Abeken  and  I  slept,  *'  His  Excellency  is 
going  off  directly  ;  the  gentlemen  will  please  to  get  ready."  I 
got  up  at  once  and  packed  up.  It  was,  however,  a  mistake. 
By  the  "  gentlemen  "  only  the  Councillors  were  meant.  About 
six  o'clock  the  Chancellor  started  with  Count  Bismarck-Bohlen. 
Abeken,  Keudell,  and  Hatzfeld  followed  him  on   horseback. 


ReconnoiteHng  near  Metz.  23 

We  otliers  remained  in  Herny,  where  there  was  plenty  to  do, 
and  where,  when  we  had  finished  our  work,  we  could  make  our- 
selves useful  in  other  ways.  Thick  yellowish-gray  clouds  of 
•dust  were  rising  from  long  lines  of  infantry  passing  through 
the  village ;  amongst  others,  three  Prussian  regiments,  partly 
Pomeranian,  almost  all  large,  tine  men.  The  band  played 
^'  Heil  dir  im  Siegerkrantz,"  and  "Ich  bin  ein  Preusse."  One 
could  see  in  the  eyes  of  these  men  the  burning  thirst  they  were 
enduring,  so  we  organized,  as  quickly  as  possible,  a  Kttle  fire- 
extinguisher's  brigade.  "We  carried  the  water  in  pails  and  jugs, 
and  reached  it  out  to  them  as  they  marched  along — for  they  dare 
not  stop — in  their  ranks,  so  that  at  least  one  here  and  there 
could  get  a  mouthful  to  carry  him  on  a  bit,  either  in  the  hollow 
of  his  hand  or  in  the  little  tin  cup  which  he  carried  by  his  side. 

Our  Councillors  returned  from  their  ride  about  three  o'clock  ; 
the  Minister  was  rather  later.  Meanwhile  Count  Henckel,  a 
stately  dark-bearded  gentleman,  and  Bamberger,  a  member  of 
the  Reichstag,  had  arrived ;  also  a  Herr  von  Oldberg,  who  was 
to  be  Prefect,  or  something  of  that  kind,  so  that  we  begin  to 
feel  that  we  are  masters  of  the  conquered  land,  and  are  settling 
do'WTi  in  it.  How  much  of  the  country  it  is  intended  to  keep 
had  been  told  me  in  the  morning  by  a  telegram  sent  eastwards, 
in  the  deciphering  of  which  I  had  been  helpful,  and  which  had 
said  plainly  that,  God  willing,  we  should  keep  Elsass. 

As  we  learned  at  dinner,  the  King  and  Chancellor  had  made 
a  sort  of  reconnoitering  tour  to  within  three  English  miles  of 
Metz,  and  had  seen  General  von  Steinmetz.  The  French  army 
stationed  outside  the  fortress  had  been  violent-ly  attacked  by 
him  the  day  before  near  Courcelles,  and  driven  into  the  town 
and  forts.  The  enemy's  loss  was  estimated  at  4,000  men  ;  they 
found  forty  dead  "  Red-breeches "  in  one  ditch,  most  of  them 
shot  through  the  head. 

In  the  evening,  as  we  sat  on  a  bench  near  the  house  door,  the 
Minister  came  up  for  a  moment.  Whilst  he  talked  with  us  he 
asked  me  for  a  cigar,  but  Councillor  Taglioni  (one  of  the  King's 
cipherers,  formerly  in  the  Embassy  at  Paris,  now  dead)  was 
quicker  than  I  in  getting  it  out  of  his  pocket.  The  more's  the 
pity,  for  my  weed  was  a  great  deal  better  than  his. 

We  were  told  that  we  were  to  proceed  next  day  to  Pont- 
a-Mousson,  and  as  we  turned  in  for  the  night,  I  thought  to  pay 
Abeken  a  compliment  by  telling  him  that  the  day's  ride  was 
quite  astonishing  for  one  of  his  years  ;  he  really  ought  to  be  con- 


24  Bismcu'ck  in  the  Franco-Oemian  War. 

gratulated.  But  he  did  not  take  it  altogether  well ;  he  did  not 
like  to  appear  old,  and  I  vowed  to  myself  quietly  that  in  future 
I  would  be  more  sparing  of  my  surprise  and  my  good  wishes. 

On  Aiigust  16,  at  half -past  nine,  a  lovely,  but  warm  morn- 
ing, we  set  off  again.  I  drove  in  the  Councillor's  carriage,  as 
some  of  them  rode,  and  by  me  sat  Landrath  Jansen,  one  of  the 
Free-Conservative  party  in  the  Reichstag ;  a  good-looking, 
pleasant  man,  who  had  come  to  take  part  in  the  administration 
of  the  conquered  district.  The  journey  took  us  over  a  broad 
undulating  plain,  to  the  chain  of  hills  on  the  right  banks  of  the 
Moselle,  among  which  stood  out  the  cone  of  the  Mousson,  with  its 
extensive  ruins.  We  drove  on  an  excellent  road,  through  some 
more  villages  with  handsome  mairies  and  schools.  It  was 
everywhere  full  of  life  ar^d  bustle,  with  the  infantry  soldiers, 
the  detachment  of  Saxon  horsemen  in  bright  blue,  and  all  kinds  of 
carriages  and  carts.     Here  and  there,  too,  there  were  little  camps. 

At  last  about  three  o'clock  we  drove  over  the  slope  of  the 
hill,  and  down  into  the  valley  of  the  Moselle  towards  Ponte-a- 
Mousson.  It  is  a  town  of  about  8,000  inhabitants,  stretching 
along  both  sides  of  the  river,  over  which  is  a  beautiful  stone 
bridge,  and  with  a  great  old  church  on  the  right  bank.  We 
crossed  the  bridge  and  came  into  a  market-place  surrounded 
with  arcades,  hotels,  cafes,  and  an  old  town- house,  before  which 
the  Saxon  infantry  were  lying  on  straw  spread  on  the  ground. 
Here  we  turned  into  the  Rue  Saint-Laurent,  where  the  Minis- 
ter, with  Abeken,  !Keudell,  and  Count  Bismarck-Bohlen,  were 
quartered  in  a  small  mansion  at  the  corner  of  the  Rue  Raugraf, 
which  was  covered  with  a  red-blossomed  climbing  plant.  His 
involuntary  host  was,  so  we  heard,  an  old  gentleman  who  had 
gone  off  with  Madame  on  his  travels.  The  Chancellor  took 
possession  of  the  apartments  on  the  first  floor,  which  looked 
out  on  the  little  garden  at  the  back.  The  Bureau  was  estab- 
lished on  the  ground  floor,  in  a  back  room,  and  a  smaller  room 
next  it  served  as  the  dining-room.  The  Landrath,  I,  Secretary 
Bolsing,  Willisch,  and  St.  Blanquart,  the  other  temporary 
cipherer,  were  about  ten  doors  off,  in  the  Rue  Saint-Laurent,  in 
a  house  which  seemed  to  be  inhabited  only  by  some  French 
ladies  and  their  maid  servants.  I  slept  with  Blanquart,  or  to 
give  his  full  title  for  once,  Hofrath  St.  Blanquart,  in  a  room 
which  a  chance  visitor  might  have  called  an  omnium  gatliemm 
of  memorials  from  every  country ;  dried  flowers,  wreaths  of 
roses,  palm  branches,  photographs  from  the  city  of  David,  also 


An  Ethnographical  Cabinet.  25 

Vino  di  Geriisalemme,  a  darabuka,  cocoa-nuts,  corals,  ci-ay-fish, 
sponges  from  the  bottom  of  the  sea,  a  sword-fish,  and  other 
monsters  with  gaping  jaws  and  sharp  teeth  ;  three  German 
tobacco  pipes,  next  which  came  three  Oriental  cousins  of  theirs 
— a  tschibbuk,  a  nargileh,  and  a  schischi  ;  then  came  a  Spanish 
Madonna  -with  half-a-dozen  swords  in  her  breast,  reminding  one 
of  a  bull  fight ;  antelopes'  horns,  pictures  of  saints  from  ^Moscow, 
and,  lastly,  framed  and  glazed,  a  French  newspaper,  with  an 
article  in  it  obliterated  by  a  Russian  censor  of  the  press.  In 
short,  a  complete  enthnographical  cabinet. 

We  remained  here  only  long  enough  to  make  ourselves  de- 
cent. Then  we  hastened  to  the  Bureau.  On  tlie  way  we  saw 
difierent  proclamations  nailed  up  at  the  corners  of  the  streets  . 
one,  of  our  A-ictory,  of  the  14th,  a  second,  about  the  abolition 
of  the  conscription,  and  a  third  in  which  the  mayor  of  Ponte- 
a-Mousson  exhorted  the  inhabitants  to  circumspection, — which 
must  have  been  issued  the  day  before  the  attack  of  the  civiliaris 
in  this  place  on  our  soldiers,  or  even  before.  The  inhabitants 
were  also  ordered  by  our  people,  under  threat  of  punishment, 
to  put  lights  in  all  the  windows  at  night,  and  to  leave  open  all 
shuttex-s  and  doors,  and  to  deliver  up  all  their  weapons  at  the 
tOA^Ti-house. 

The  distant  thunder  of  cannon  was  heard  during  the  greater 
part  of  the  afternoon,  and  in  the  evening,  at  dinner,  we  learnt  that 
there  had  again  been  a  hardly-contested  action  near  Metz  .  upon 
which  some  one  remarked  that  perhaps  we  should  not  succeed 
in  preventing  the  French  from  accomplishing  their  object, 
and  withdrawing  to  Yerdun.  To  this  the  Minister  replied 
jestingly,  "3Iolk,  the  hard-hearted  reprobate,  said  that  such  a 
mishap  would  not  be  to  be  lamented,  for  then  we  should  hav- 
them  safe."  "Which  meant,  I  suppose,  that  then  we  should  shuS 
them  in  on  every  side,  and  prevent  their  further  retreat, — in 
fact,  annihilate  them.  Of  the  other  sayings  of  the  Chancellor 
on  this  occasion,  I  give  only  this,  that  he  .said  "  Tlie  little  black- 
Saxons,  who  looked  so  intelligent,"  had  pleased  hiro  greatly, 
during  the  ^^sit  he  had  paid  them  the  day  before.  He  meant 
the  dark  green  riflemen,  or  the  108th  regiment,  with  tho  samr- 
colour  of  uniform.  "  They  seem  to  be  shai-p,  nimble  fellows,  and 
we  ought  to  mention  this  in  the  public  press." 

The  following  night  I  was  awakened  several  times  by  th'- 
measured  tread  of  infantiy  marching  through,  and  the  rollini: 
and  rumbling  of  heavy  wheels  over  the  uneven  pavement.     A.s 
3 


2G  Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War 

we  leanit  afterwards  in  the  Bureau,  they  were  Hessian  soiuiers. 
We  wei'e  told  tliat  the  Minister  had  already,  about  four  o'clock 
in  the  morning,  ridden  off  towards  Metz,  where  a  great  battle 
was  expected  to-day  or  to-morrow.  As  there  was  every  proba- 
bility of  my  having  little  or  nothing  to  do,  I  seized  the  oppor- 
tunity to  take  a  walk  with  Willisch  in  the  neighbourhood  of 
the  town. 

We  descended  once  more  to  the  confusion  of  war  time  and 
to  our  house  in  the  Rue  Raugraf,  but  only  to  hear  that  the 
Chancellor  had  not  returned.  News  had  been  received  of  a 
l^attle  the  day  before  to  the  west  of  Metz.  We  heard  of  the 
heavy  losses  of  our  side,  and  that  Bazaine  had  with  great  diffi- 
culty been  prevented  from  breaking  through.  The  chief  scene 
of  the  fighting  seemed  to  have  been  the  village  of  Mars-la-Tour. 
The  Chassepot  balls  literally  fell  like  a  .shower  of  hail.  A 
Cuirassier  regiment,  so  it  was  said  then,  with  an  exaggeration 
not  uncommon  in  such  cases,  had  been  almost  annihilated,  and 
the  dragoons  of  the  guard  had  also  suffered  severely.  There 
was  no  division  whose  battalions  had  not  had  terrible  losses. 
To-day,  however,  when  we  would  have  the  superiority  of  force, 
as  the  French  had  yesterday,  a  victory  might  be  expected  if  the 
French  attempted  to  advance. 

This,  however,  seemed  not  quite  certain.  Consequently  we 
were  rather  uneasy — no  sitting  still,  no  steady  thinking,  was 
possible ;  as  in  a  fever,  certain  thoughts  were  constantly  recur- 
ring. On  going  to  the  market  and  to  the  bridge  we  found  the 
slightly  wounded  gradually  dropping  in  on  foot,  those  badly 
wounded  in  waggons.  Along  the  road  from  Metz  we  met  a 
long  line  of  about  one  hundred  and  twenty  prisoners.  They 
were  chiefly  small,  meagre  men,  but  still  there  were  amongst 
them  some  well-gi-owTi,  broad-shouldei-ed  fellows — Guards,  recog- 
nizable by  the  white  cord  on  the  breast.  Coming  back  from  the 
market  we  went  into  the  garden  at  the  back  of  the  Bureau, 
where,  on  the  left  hand,  in  a  corner  not  far  from  the  house, 
"  the  dog  was  buried,"  the  dog  of  Herr  Aubert,  who  was,  appar- 
ently, our  landlord,  and  who  erected  a  stone  in  memory  of  the 
departed,  with  the  following  touching  inscription  : 

GIRARD  AUBERT'S  EPITAPH  ON  HIS  DOG. 

Ici  tu  giis,  ma  vieille  amie, 

Tu  n'es  done  plus  pour  mes  vieux  jours, 

O  toi,  ma  Diane  cherie, 

Je  te  pleurerai  toujours. 


The  Chancellor  and  the  Doctor.  27 

At  last,  about  six  o'clock,  the  Chancellor  came  back.  Ko 
great  battle  had  taken  place  to-day,  but  something  would  most 
Hkely  happen  next  morning.  The  Chief  told  us  at  the  table, 
that  he  had  been  to  visit  his  eldest  son.  Count  Herbert,  who 
had  been  wounded  by  a  shot  in  the  upper  part  of  the  thigh 
during  a  cavalry  attack  at  Mars-la-Tour,  and  who  was  lying  in 
the  field  hospital  of  Maria ville.  The  Minister,  riding  about,  at 
last  found  it  in  a  farmyard  at  the  top  of  a  hill,  where  were 
also  a  considerable  number  of  other  woimded  men.  They  were 
left  in  the  hands  of  a  doctor  who  could  not  contrive  to  get 
water  for  them,  and  who,  from  a  kind  of  prudery,  refi'ained 
from  taking  the  hens  and  turkeys  which  were  running  about 
the  yard  for  the  use  of  the  tick.  "  He  said  he  dare  not,"  con- 
tinued the  Minister.  "  Friendly  representations  made  to  him 
were  no  use.  Then  I  threatened,  first  to  shoot  the  hens  with  a 
revolver,  and  afterwards  gave  him  twenty  francs  with  which  he 
could  buy  fifteen  of  them.  At  last  I  remembered  that  I  was  a 
Prussian  general,  and  I  told  him  so.  Upon  which,  he  listened 
to  me.  But  the  water  I  was  obHged  to  look  for  myself,  and 
get  it  taken  to  them  in  barrels." 

Meantime  the  American  General  Sheridan,  had  entered  the 
town.  He  came  from  Chicago,  was  staying  in  the  market-square 
in  the  Croix  Blanche^  and  wanted  an  inter^aew  with  our  Chan- 
cellor. I  waited  upon  him  by  the  Count's  wish,  and  said  that 
he  would  expect  him  in  the  course  of  the  evening.  The  gen- 
eral, a  little  corpixlent  gentleman  of  about  forty-five,  with  a 
dark  mustache  and  a  tuft,  spoke  a  most  decided  Yankee  dialect. 
He  had  with  him  his  adjutant,  Forsyth e,  and  as  interpreter, 
McLean,  a  journalist,  who  was  also  war  correspondent  for  the 
New  York  World. 

In  the  night,  from  our  room,  we  heard  again  the  heavy  tramp 
of  soldiers  marching  through  the  town,  and  we  afterwards 
found  they  were  Saxons. 

Next  morning  they  told  me  in  the  Bureau  that  the  King  and 
the  Minister  had  already  driven  out  about  three  o'clock.  There 
was  fighting  again  almost  on  the  battle-field  of  the  1 6th,  and  it 
seemed  as  if  matters  were  coming  to  a  crisis.  As  may  be  easily 
imagined,  we  were  more  excited  by  this  news  than  any  time 
before  in  these  last  days.  Restless  and  impatient  to  know  what 
was  going  on,  we  started  to  walk  in  the  direction  of  Metz,  and 
arrived  in  a  state  of  mental  and  bodily  stew,  at  a  spot  about 
two  miles  and  a  half  from  Pont-a-Mousson.     On  the  road  we 


JiS  BUmarck  in  the  Franco-German  War. 

rnet  some  who  were  slightly  wounded,  walking — some  singly, 
some  in  pairs,  some  in  larger  bodies — to  the  town.  Many  still 
carried  their  muskets  ;  others  were  supporting  themselves  with 
sticks,  and  one  had  enveloped  himself  in  the  red-lined  cloak  of 
a  French  cavalry  soldier.  They  had  taken  part  in  the  action 
the  day  before  at  Mars-la-Tour,  and  Gorze.  About  the  fight 
which  was  going  on  this  day  they  bring  reports,  good  and  bad, 
which  were  repeated  in  the  town  "svith  exaggerations.  At  last, 
good  news  got  the  upper  hand,  but  even  when  the  evening  was 
far  advanced  nothing  absolutely  certain  was  known.  We  dined 
without  our  Chief,  for  whom  we  waited  in  vain  till  past  mid- 
night. At  last,  however,  we  heard  that  he  along  with  Sheri- 
dan and  Count  Bismarck-Bohlen  was  with  the  King  at  Rezonville. 

Friday,  Aiigust  19. — When  we  knew  for  certain  that  the 
Germans  had  been  victorious  the  day  before,  Abeken,  Keudell, 
Hatzfeld  and  I,  drove  towards  the  battle-fields. 

Immediately  after  passing  Gorze  we  came  upon  traces  of 
battle ;  ditches  ploughed  by  cannon  balls,  branches  torn  from 
the  trees  by  shot,  and  a  few  dead  horses.  Further  on  there 
were  more  ;  in  some  places  we  counted  two  or  three  close  to- 
gether, and  in  another  there  was  a  heap  of  eight  such  carcasses. 
Most  of  them  were  frightfully  swollen  and  their  legs  were 
stretched  up  in  the  air,  with  their  heads  lying  limp  on  the 
ground.  Near  Mars-la-Tour  there  was  a  Saxon  camp.  The 
battle  of  the  16th,  as  it  appeared,  had  done  little  harm  to  the 
village  ;  only  one'  house  was  burned  down.  I  asked  a  lieuten- 
ant of  Uhlans  here  where  Rezonville  was.  He  did  not  know. 
"Where  is  the  Kingi"  "At  a  place  about  six  (English)  miles 
from  here,"  was  the  answer.  "  Out  there,"  said  the  officer, 
pointing  toward  the  east.  A  peasant  woman,  who  tried  to  show 
us  where  Rezonville  lay,  also  pointed  in  that  direction,  so  we 
drove  on  straight  along  a  road  which  brought  us  after  a  time 
to  the  village  of  Vionville.  Just  before  we  reached  that  place 
I  stumbled  on  the  first  of  those  killed  in  this  fight — a  Prussian 
musketeer  lying  between  the  ditches  on  the  edge.of  the  road  and 
a  stubble  field.  His  face  was  as  black  as  a  Turco's  and  his 
body  fearfully  swollen.  All  the  houses  in  the  village  were  full 
of  badly  wounded  soldiers ;  German  and  French  doctors  were 
moving  along  the  road,  and  ambulance  men  with  the  Geneva 
Cress  hurried  backwards  and  forwards. 

I  deterinined  to  wait  here  for  the  Minister  and  the  Council- 
lors, for  I  thought  they  would  certainly  come  to  this  place,  and 


After  the  Battle.  29 

that  probably  before  long.  I  walked  to  the  battle-field  through 
a  nan-ow  path  on  the  left  side  of  the  road,  where,  in  a  dit^Ji,  a 
man's  leg  which  had  been  cut  off  lay  tmder  a  mass  of  bloody 
rags.  About  four  hundred  paces  from  the  village  I  came  to 
two  ditches  about  300  feet  long,  running  parallel  to  each  other, 
neither  wide  nor  deep,  which  men  were  still  digging,  and  near 
them  gi-eat  heaps  of  dead  bodies,  French  and  German  huddled 
together.  Some  were  half-tlressed,  most  of  them  still  in  uni- 
form, all  blackened  and  frightfully  swollen  from  the  heat. 
There  must  have  been  2.50  bodies,  which  had  been  brought  to- 
gether here,  and  carts  were  still  arriving  with  more.  Many 
others  had,  no  doubt,  alrea,dy  been  buried.  Farther  on  to- 
wards Metz  the  battle-field  sloped  upwards  a  little,  and  here 
more  seem  to  have  fallen  than  elsewhere.  The  gi'ound  was 
strewn  with  French  caps,  German  helmets,  knapsacks,  arms, 
and  uniforms,  linen,  shoes,  and  papers,  all  strewn  about. 
Among  the  furrows  of  the  potato  field  lay  some  single  bodies, 
some  on  their  faces,  some  on  their  backs  ;  one  had  lost  the 
whole  of  his  left  leg  to  a  span  above  the  knee ;  another,  half 
his  head  ;  some  had  the  right  arm  stretched  stiff  towards  the 
sky.  Here  and  there  we  came  upon  a  single  grave  marked  by 
a  little  cross  made  of  the  wood  of  a  cigar-box  and  tied  togethei* 
with  string,  or  by  the  bayonet  from  a  Chassepot.  The  odour  from 
the  dead  bodies  was  most  perceptible,  and  at  times,  when  the  wind 
blew  from  the  direction  of  a  heap  of  horses,  quite  unbearable. 

It  was  time  to  go  back  to  the  carriage,  and  I  had  had 
quite  enough  of  this  picture  of  the  battle-field.  I  took  another 
road,  but  here,  too,  I  had  to  pass  heaps  of  the  dead ;  this  time, 
"Red-breeches"  only,  heaps  of  discarded  clothing,  shirts,  shoes, 
papers,  and  letters  ;  prayer-books  and  books  of  devotion.  Near 
some  dead  bodies  lay  whole  packets  of  letters  which  the  poor 
fellows  had  earned  with  them  in  their  knapsacks.  I  took  two  or 
three  of  them  as  memorials,  two  of  them  German  letters  from  one 
Anastasia  Stampf,  from  Scherrweiler,  near  Schlettstadt,  which 
I  found  beside  a  French  soldier,  who  must  have  been  stationed 
at  Caen  just  before  the  outbreak  of  the  war.  One  was  dated 
from  "25,  hay  month,  1870"  (July),  and  concluded  with  the 
words,  "We  commend  thee  always  to  Mary's  holy  keeping." 

When  I  got  back  to  the  carriage  the  minister  had  not  yet 
arrived,  and  it  was  four  o'clock.  We  now  turned  round  and 
took  a  nearer  way  back  to  Gorze,  and  I  saw  that  we  had  driven 
round  the  two  long  sides  of  an  acute-angled  triangle,  instead  of 


80  Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War. 

choosing  the  shortest  route.  Here  we  met  Keudell,  to  whom 
I  explained  our  mistake  and  the  unfortunate  roundabout  road 
we  had  taken.  He  had  been  with  Abeken  and  Count  Hatzfeld 
with  the  Chief,  in  Rezonville.  While  the  battle  of  the  1 8th 
was  raging,  the  decisive  struggle  taking  place  on  Gravelotte, 
Bismarck  had  advanced  with  the  King  rather  too  far,  and  for 
a  little  time  they  were  in  some  danger.  Afterwards  he,  single- 
handed,  had  been  carrying  water  to  the  badly  wounded.  At 
nine  o'clock  in  the  evening  I  saw  him  safe  and  sound  in  Pont- 
a-Mousson,  where  we  all  met  together  once  more  at  supper. 
The  conversation  at  table  turned  naturally  on  the  two  last 
battles,  and  the  gain  and  loss  which  accompanied  them.  The 
French  had  left  masses  of  people  on  the  field.  The  Minister 
had  seen  their  Guards  laid  down  at  Gravelotte  in  rows  and 
heaps.  But  ottr  losses,  too,  were,  he  said,  very  great.  Those 
of  the  16th  of  August  were  only  now  known.  "A  number  of 
Prussian  families  will  be  thrown  into  mourning,"  remarked  the 
Chief.  "  Wesdehlen  and  Reuss  are  laid  in  one  grave  ;  Wedell, 
dead ;  von  Finkenstein,  dead ;  Rahden  (Luca's  husband),  shot 
through  both  cheeks ;  a  great  number  of  commanders  of  regi- 
ments and  battalions  killed  or  severely  wounded.  The  whole 
field  at  Mars-la-Tour  was  yesterday  still  white  and  blue  with 
dead  Cuirassiers  and  Dragoons."  In  explanation  of  this  re- 
mark we  learned  that  a  great  cavalry  attack  had  been  made, 
near  that  village,  on  the  French  who  were  pressing  forward  in 
the  direction  of  Verdun  ;  that  though  this  attack  had  been  re- 
pulsed by  the  enemy's  infantry  in  the  style  of  Balaklava,  it  had 
so  far  been  successful,  that  it  had  arrested  the  enemy,  till  rein- 
forcements reached  us.  The  sons  of  the  Chancellor  had  been 
J.  resent  at  this  action,  and  had  displayed  great  bravery ;  the 
eldest  had  received  no  less  than  three  shots,  one  through  the 
breast  of  his  coat,  another  on  his  watch,  and  a  third  through 
the  fleshy  part  of  the  thigh.  The  youngest  seemed  to  have 
come  through  it  unhurt ;  and  the  Chief  related  with  manifest 
pride,  that  Count  Bill  in  the  retreat  had,  with  his  strong  arms, 
dragged  out  of  the  fray  one  of  his  comrades  who  was  wounded 
in  the  leg,  and  riddien  off  with  him  slung  across  his  horse,  till 
they  got  assistance.  On  the  1 8th  still  more  German  blood  was 
shed,  but  we  had  won  the  victory  and  attained  the  object  of 
this  destructive  war.  By  nightfall  Bazaine's  army  Avas  decisive- 
ly driven  back  on  Metz,  and  the  officers  who  were  taken  prison- 
ers themselves  admitted  to  the  Minister  that  it  was  all  over 


The  Minuter  and  Sheridan.  31 

■with  them.  The  Saxons,  who  on  the  two  pre\dous  days  had 
made  very  stiff  marches,  and  had  reached  a  position  to  take 
effective  part  in  the  fight  at  the  village  Saint-Private,  stood  now 
across  the  road  to  Thionville,  and  thus  Metz  was  entirely  sur- 
rounded by  our  troops. 

The  Chancellor,  as  it  appeared,  had  not  approved  of  some  of 
the  measures  of  the  military  in  these  two  fights.  Among  other 
things,  he  said  of  Steinmetz,  "  that  he  had  made  a  bad  use  of 
the  really  prodigious  bravery  of  our  troops — a  blood-spendthrift !" 
He  spoke  with  vehement  indignation  of  the  barbarous  manner 
in  which  the  French  waged  war ;  they  had  fired,  it  was  said,  on 
the  Geneva  Cross  flag,  and  even  on  the  bearer  of  a  flag  of  truce. 

The  ^Minister  seemed  to  have  quickly  got  on  very  good  terms 
with  Sheridan  ;  for  I  had  to  invite  him  and  his  two  companions 
to  dinner  next  evening. 

On  the  20th,  early,  came  Herr  von  Kuhlwetter,  who  was  to 
be  civil  commissioner,  or  prefect,  in  Elsass  or  Lothringen,  At 
eleven  the  Crown  Prince,  who  with  his  troops  was  stationed 
some  twenty -five  miles  from  Pont-ti-Mousson,  on  the  road  from 
Nancy  to  Chalons,  came  to  visit  the  Chancellor.  In  the  after- 
noon there  passed  through  the  Rue  Notre  Dame  nearly  twelve 
hundred  prisoners  on  foot,  and  amongst  them  two  carriages 
with  officers,  guarded  by  Prussian  cavalry.  In  the  evening, 
Sheridan,  Forsythe,  and  McLean  were  guests  of  the  Chief,  who 
talked  eagerly  with  the  American  General  in  good  English, 
whilst  champagne  and  porter  circulated.  The  latter  was  drunk 
out  of  the  metal  pots  I  have  described,  one  of  which  filled  up 
to  the  brim  he  sent  to  me,  saying  :  "  Doctor,  do  you  still  drink 
porter?"  I  mention  this  because  at  this  time  no  one  took 
porter  but  the  Minister  and  the  Americans,  and  because  the  gift 
was  extremely  welcome  and  agreeable  ;  for  though  we  had  more 
than  enough  of  wme,  champagne,  and  cognac,  we  had  had  no 
beer  since  Saarbriicken. 

The  General,  well  known  as  a  successful  general  of  the 
Unionists  in  the  latter  part  of  the  war  of  Secession,  talked  a 
good  deal.  He  spoke  of  the  fatigues  he  had  undergone  during 
his  ride  from  the  Rocky  Mountains  to  Chicago,  of  the  horrible 
swarms  of  gnats,  of  a  great  bone  cave  in  California,  in  which 
fossil  animals  were  found,  and  of  buffalo  and  bear  hunting. 
The  Chancellor  also  told  a  huntmg  story  in  his  best  style.  He 
was  one  day,  in  Finland,  in  considerable  danger  from  a  great 
bear,  which  he  could  not  see  plainly,  as  he  was  covered  with 


32  Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War. 

snow.  "  At  last  I  fired,"  lie  continued,  "  and  the  bear  fell, 
about  six  steps  in  front  of  me.  He  was  not  dead,  however, 
and  was  able  to  get  up  again.  I  knew  what  was  the 
danger,  and  what  I  had  to  do.  I  did  not  stir,  but  loaded  again 
as  quietly  as  possible,  and  shot  him  dead  as  he  tried  to  stand  up." 
In  the  forenoon  of  the  21st  we  Avorked  hard  for  the  post 
and  the  telegraph  in  order  to  send  off"  the  news,  and  articles 
commenting  on  it,  to  Germany.  The  parlementaire  who  had 
been  shot  at  by  the  French,  as  he  approached  them  with  his 
white  flag,  was,  we  heard,  Captain  or  Major  Verdy  of  Moltke's 
staff;  the  trumpeter  who  accompanied  him  was  wounded.  We 
received  certain  intelligence  from  Florence,  that  Victor  Em- 
manuel and  his  minister,  in  consequence  of  our  victories,  had 
determined  to  remam  neutral,  which  hitherto  had  been  far  from 
certain.  Lastly,  we  were  now  able  to  calculate,  at  any  rate 
pretty  nearly,  the  losses  of  the  Fi'ench  on  the  14th  at  Cour- 
celles,  on  the  16th,  at  Mars-la-Tour,  and  on  the  18th  at  Grave- 
lotte.  The  Minister  put  these,  for  all  the  three  days,  at  nearly 
50,000  men,  of  whom  12,000  were  dead,  and  added,  "The 
jealousy  of  some  of  our  leaders  was  the  cause  of  our  losing  so 
many  of  our  men." 

Monday,  August  22, — I  wrote  in  my  journal : 
"  Went  early  with  Willisch  again  to  bathe  before  the  Chief 
was  up.  At  half-past  ten  I  was  summoned  to  him.  He  asked 
at  once  how  I  was,  and  whether  I  had  not  been  attacked  by 
dysentery.  He  had  not  been  well  in  the  night.  The  Count 
and  dysentery  1  God  preserve  him  from  that !  That  would 
be  worse  than  a  lost  battle.  All  our  affairs  would  fall  into  un- 
certainty and  confusion." 

There  is  no  longer  any  doubt  that,  in  the  event  of  ultimate 
victory  over  France,  we  shall  keep  Elsass  and  Metz,  with  the 
surrounding  country,  and  the  followdng  was,  perhaps,  the  train 
of  thought  which  led  the  Chancellor  to  this  decision, 

A  contribution,  however  great  it  might  be,  would  be  no  com- 
pensation for  the  enormous  saciifices  we  have  made.  We  must 
secure  South  Germany,  exposed  as  it  is,  from  the  attacks  of  the 
French  :  we  must  put  an  end  to  the  pressure  which  France  has 
exercised  upon  it  for  two  centuries,  especially  since  this  pres- 
sure has  essentially  contributed  to  the  derangement  of  German 
relations  during  the  whole  of  that  time.  Baden,  Wiirtemburg, 
and  the  other  countries  on  the  south-west,  must  not  again  be 
threatened  from  Strassburg  and  overrun  at  pleasure.     It  is  the 


The  Object  to  he  secured.  33 

same  with  Bavaria.     During  the  last  two  hundred  and  fifty 
years  the  French  have  undertaken  more  than  a  dozen  wars  of 
conquest   against   the   sou1;Ji-west   of    Germany.      Guarantees 
against  such  disturbances  of  the  peace  were  sought,  in  1814 
and  1815,  in  a  policy  adopted  towards  France,  which,  however, 
proved  to  be  too  forbearing.     This  forbearance  was  useless,  and 
even  now  would  be  fruitless  and  without  result.      The  danger 
lies  in  the  incurable  assumption  and  dominating  spirit  inherent 
in  the  French  character ;  attributes  which  may  be  abused  by 
any  ruler — not  merely  by  the  Bonapartes — to  provoke  attacks 
on  peaceful  neighbors.     Our  protection  against  it  does  not  lie 
in  fruitless  attempts  momentarily  to  weaken  the  susceptibility 
of  the  French,  but  in  the  gaining  of  a  well-secured  frontier. 
France  has,  by  her  continued  appropriation  of  German  terri- 
tory, and   of  all   our  natural   defences  on  our  west  frontier, 
placed  herself  in  a  position  to  penetrate  into    the   heart  of 
South  Germany  with  an  army,  relatively  speaking,  not  very 
great,  before  any  help  can  be  brought  dowoi  •  from  the   north. 
Since  the  time  of  Louis  XIV, — under  him  and  his  successor, 
under  the  Republic,  under  the  first  Empire, — there  has  been  a 
constant  repetition  of  these  attacks,  and  the  feeling  of  insecur- 
ity compels  the  States  of  Germany  to  keep  their  eyes  incessantly 
on  France.  That  a  feeling  of  bitterness  will  be  created  in  the  minds 
of  the  French  by  taking  away  a  piece  of  territory,  is  really  not 
worth  considering.     This  bitterness  would  exist  even  without 
cession  of  territory.     In   1866   Austria  had  not  to  cede  one 
square  rood  of  her  territory  ;  and  what  thanks  did  we  get  for  it  ? 
Our  victory  at  Koniggratz  filled  the  French  with  aversion,  hatred 
and  bitter  vexation  ;  how  much  more  effect  will  our  victories  at 
Worth  and  Metz  have  upon  them  !     Eevenge  for  this  defeat  of 
the  proud  nation  will,  therefore,  even  if  we  took  no  territory, 
be  the  war-cry  in  Paris  and  the  provinces  influenced  by  Paris, 
just  as,  for  many  years,  they  thought  of  vengeance  for  Water- 
loo.    But  an  enemy  which  cannot  be  turned  into  a  friend  by 
generous  treatment  after  defeat,  must  be  rendered  permanently 
harmless.     It  is  not  the  levelling  of  the  French  fortresses  on 
the  east  frontier  of  France,  but  their  cession,  that  can  alone  be 
of  service  to  us.     Those  who  cry  out  for  disarmament  must  be 
the  first  to  wish  to  see  the   neighbors  of  the  French  adopt 
these  measures,  for  France  is  the  sole  disturber  of  the  peace  of 
Europe,  and  will  remain  so  as  long  as  she  can. 

It  is  quite  astonishing  how  naturally  such  opinions  of  the 


34  Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German   War. 

Chief  already  flow  from  my  pen !  Wliat  ten  days  ago  still 
looked  like  a  miracle,  is  now  quite  natural  and  self-evident. 

At  table  the  conversation  again  turned  on  the  improper,  not 
to  say  base,  manner  in  which  the  Red-breeches  carry  on  the 
war,  and  the  Minister  said  that  at  Mars-la-Tour  they  had  fallen 
upon  one  of  our  officers,  who  was  sitting,  wounded,  on  a  stone 
by  the  wayside.  Some  said  they  shot  him ;  others  said,  and 
a  doctor  who  examined  the  body  was  of  the  same  opinion, 
that  he  was  thrust  through  with  a  sword,  whereupon  the  Chief 
remarked  that  if  he  had  to  choose,  he  would  rather  be  stabbed 
than  shot.  Then  he  complained  of  Abeken's  movements  dur- 
ing the  night,  so  that  he,  who  was  a  bad  sleeper  in  any  case, 
was  disturbed  by  Abeken's  calling  out,  running  backwards  and 
forwards,  and  banging  the  doors.  "  He  thinks  he  is  feeling  for 
his  connections  by  marriage,"  said  he.  This  referred  to  the 
Counts  York,  with  whom  our  Geheimrath  had  become  distantly 
connected  by  his  marriage  with  Fraulein  von  Olfers — a  rela- 
tionship on  which,  with  his  perpetual  "  my  cousins,  the  Yorks," 
he  plumed  himself  more  than  a  man  of  self-respect  and  high 
feeling  would  have  done.  One  of  the  two  Yorks  had  been 
wounded  at  Mars-la-Tour  or  Gravelotte,  and  the  old  gentleman 
drove  that  night  to  see  him.  I  can  easily  imagine  him,  under 
the  pressure  of  high- wrought  feeling,  reciting  on  the  way,  as  he 
sat  behind  the  coachman,  something  gushing,  or  thrilling,  or 
dithyrambic,  from  Goethe,  or  Ossian,  or  even  out  of  the  old 
Greek  tragic  poets. 

Count  Herbert  was  brought  here  to-day,  from  the  field- 
ambulance  to  his  father,  on  the  floor  of  whose  room  they  made 
him  a  bed.  I  saw  him  and  spoke  with  him.  His  wound  is 
painful,  but  apparently  not  at  present  dangerous.  He  will  go 
back  to  Germany  in  a  few  days  till  he  recovers. 

Note  1. — According  to  the  Constitutionnel  of  August  8,  the  pressure  of 
public  opinion  in  Vienna  had  grown  steadily.  It  showed  itself  in  this  way, 
that  in  a  single  day  the  Neiie  Freie  Presse  received  more  than  a  thousand 
letters  from  subscribers,  to  give  notice  to  stop  their  papers,  as  they  would 
no  longer  take  in  a  print  which  continued  to  promote  the  interests  of  Prus- 
sia to  the  injury  of  Austria. 

Note  2. — According  to  one  of  the  articles  inspired  from  Vienna  in  the 
Constitutionnel,  the  Morgenpost  of  that  city,  of  August  2,  contained  revela- 
tions said  to  come  from  "a  personage  on  a  very  friendly  footing  with  the 
Grand  Duke  of  Baden, "  ' '  according  to  which  M.  de  Bismarck  "  is  said  to 
have  "proposed  in  full  Ministerial  Council  to  give  up  Saarbriicken  and 
Landau  to  Prance.  The  Grand  Duke  himself,"  it  goes  on  to  say,  "told  the 
fact  to  the  person,  who  published  it  in  the  Morgenpost,  and  the  Grand  Duke 
had  it  from  the  King  of  Prussia,  who  asserted  that  it  was  only  through  his 
own  opposition  that  the  proposition  of  M.  de  Bismarck  was  not  adopted  by 
the  CounciL"  ■ 


Thiers'  Predictions  concerning  France.  35 


CHAPTER  in. 

COMMERCY — BAE-LE-DUC — CLERMONT    IN   ARGONNE; 


TUESDAY,  August  23. — We  set  out  again  on  our  journey 
westwards.  Sheridan  and  his  people  were  to  accompany 
us,  or  follow  us  immediately.  President  von  Kuhlwetter  re- 
mains here  for  the  present  as  prefect;  Covint  Eenard,  of  gigantic 
frame  and  corresponding  beard,  at  Nancy,  and  Count  Henckel 
at  Saargemiind,  in  similar  positions.  We  saw  the  Imperial  en- 
voy Bamberger  again.  Herr  Stieber,  too,  made  his  appearance 
in  the  neighborhood  of  the  house  at  the  comer  of  the  Rue 
Raugraf.  Lastly,  as  I  paid  a  parting  visit  to  the  interior  of 
the  town,  in  order  to  take  away  a  mental  image  to  remember 
the  place  by,  I  saw  the  refined,  wrinkled,  smooth-shaven  face- 
of  Moltke,  for  the  first  time  since  I  saw  him  along  with  the 
Minister  of  War  mounting  the  steps  of  Bismarck's  residence, 
eight  or  ten  days  before  the  declaration  of  war.  It  wore 
to-day,  as  it  seemed  to  me,  a  very  happy  and  pleasant  ex- 
pression. 

An  account  of  the  way  in  which  Thiers  had  spoken  not  long 
ago  of  the  immediate  future  of  France  interested  me  not  a 
little  as  I  returned  to  the  Bureau,  He  had  clearly  pointed  out, 
that  in  the  event  of  ^-ictory  we  should  take  possession  of  Elsass, 
that  Napoleon  would,  after  the  loss  of  battles,  certainly  lose 
also  his  throne,  and  that  he  would  be  succeeded  for  some  months 
by  a  Republic,  and  then  by  some  member  of  the  Orleans 
family,  perhaps  even  by  Leopold  of  Belgium,  who,  as  my  in- 
formant claimed  to  know  from  certain  knowledge,  was  very 
ambitious. 

We  left  Pout-a-Moussoa  at  ten  o'clock.  The  fine  weather 
of  the  last  few  days  had  changed  between  morning  and  after- 
noon to  a  gi-ay  cloudy  sky  and  shoAvers  of  rain.  I  drove  in  the 
Secretaries'  carriage,  which  carried  the  portfolios  of  the  Foreign 


36  Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War. 

Office  from  place  to  place.  Beyond  Giroiiville  the  road  ascend- 
ed a  steep  hill,  from  which  there  was  a  fine  view  over  the  plain 
beneath.  We  left  the  carriage  here,  to  ease  the  horses,  the 
Chancellor  walking  with  Abeken  at  the  head  of  the  procession 
for  a  quarter  of  an  hour,  in  great  \nde  top  boots,  which  in  size 
and  shape  reminded  one  of  those  one  sees  in  portraits  from  the 
Thirty  Years'  "War.  Next  to  him  walked  Moltke,  the  greatest 
artist  in  war  of  our  days,  by  the  side  of  the  greatest  statesman 
of  our  time,  on  a  French  road  leading  to  Paris,  and  I  could  bet 
that  neither  thought  it  specially  remarkable. 

When  we  returned  to  the  carriages,  we  saw,  to  the  right  of 
the  road,  that  a  telegraph  had  been  established  by  some  smart 
soldiers.  Soon  afterward  we  descended  into  the  valley  of  the 
Upper  Meuse,  and  shortly  before  two  reached  Commercy,  a 
pretty  little  town  with  about  6,000  inhabitants,  close  to  a  great 
forest.  The  stream  here  is  still  narrow  and  muddy.  On  it  is 
an  old  mansion,  with  a  collonade  in  front.  The  white  shutters 
of  the  better  houses  in  the  street  were  mostly  closed,  as  though 
the  proprietors  were  determined  not  to  see  the  hated  Prussians. 
The  people  in  blouses,  on  the  contrary,  seemed  more  curious 
and  less  hostile.  Over  several  docJrs  was  to  be  seen  "Fabrique 
de  Madeleines."  These  are  biscuits  in  the  shape  of  little  melons, 
which  are  in  great  request  all  through  France,  so  we  did  not  fail 
to  buy  some  boxes  to  send  home. 

The  Chief  was  quartered  with  Abeken  and  Keudell  at  the 
house  of  Count  Macore  de  Gaucourt,  in  the  Rue  des  Fontaines, 
in  which  not  long  before  a  Prince  of  Schwarzburg  had  lived, 
and  where  only  the  lady  of  the  house  remained  behind.  Her 
husband  was  in  the  French  army,  and  was  therefore  in  the  field. 
He  was  a  man  of  very  good  family,  descended  from  the  old 
Dukes  of  Lorraine.  There  was  a  pretty  flower-garden  near  liis 
house,  and  a  park  with  charming  shade  stretched  behind  it. 
I  was  not  far  from  the  Minister,  at  No.  1,  Rue  Heurtebise,  on 
the  ground  floor  dressing-room  of  a  man  living  on  his  means, 
whom  I  found  a  friendly  and  obliging  host.  He  gave  me  an 
excellent  four-poster  bed.  In  walking  through  the  town  I  met 
Sheridan's  adjutant,  in  front  of  a  house  with  steps  leading  up  to 
the  door.  He  told  me  that  he  left  California  in  the  beginning 
of  May,  and  travelled  to  Chicago  in  great  haste,  and  from  thence 
to  London ;  then  to  Berlin,  and  from  there  to  Pont-a-Mousson 
in  five  days.  He  and  the  General,  who  was  looking  out  at  a  win- 
dow on  the  first  floor,  now  wear  uniform.     Afterwards,  I  sought 


The  Orleans  Family.  37 

for  the  Chancellor,  found  him  in  the  garden,  and  inquired  wheth- 
er he  hatl  anything  for  me  to  do.  After  some  thought,  he  said 
"Yes,"  and  an  hour  afterwards  I  set  the  field  post,  as  well  as 
the  telegraph  to  work.  I  wrote,  for  instance,  the  following 
article  : 

"It  is  now  quite  certain  that,  the  Princes  of  the  Orleans 
family,  in  the  expectation  of  seeing  the  star  of  the  Napoleons 
pale  and  sink  still  lower,  consider  their  time  come.  Emphatic- 
ally declaring  themselves  Frenchmen,  they  have  placed  their 
sword  at  the  command  of  France  in  the  present  crisis.  By 
their  indolence,  for  the  most  part — by  adhering  to  the  principle 
of  laissez  faire  in  dealing  with  the  afi'airs  of  their  neighbors, 
the  Orleans  family  lost  their  throne.  It  seems  as  if  they  de- 
sired to  reconquer  it  by  energy,  and  as  if  by  indulging  the  pas- 
sions of  Chauvinism,  the  craze  for  glory  and  the  assumption  of 
the  guardianship  of  the  world,  Inherent  in  Frenchmen, — they 
would  seek  to  maintain  themselves  upon  the  throne.  We  are 
by  no  means  at  the  «nd  of  our  work.  A  decisive  Wctory  is 
probable,  but  not  yet  certain  ;  the  fall  of  Napoleon  is  some- 
what nearer,  but  it  is  not  yet  a  fact.  If  Napoleon  actually 
falls,  could  we  be  content — in  \-\q\v  of  what  we  have  just  re- 
marked— merely  with  this  result  of  our  enomious  exertions  ? 
Ought  we  to  feel  that  we  had  attained,  in  that  event,  what 
must  be  our  supreme  object — a  peace  with  France,  secured  {<")r 
many  years  %  No  one  ^^^ll  as.sei-t  tlxis.  A  peacf-  w-itJi  the  Or- 
leanist  family  reseated  on  the  throne  of  France  would  be,  with- 
out any  doubt,  far  more  delusive  than  a  peace  witl»  Napoleon, 
who  has  had  enough  to  do  ^\'ith  glorj'.  Sooner  or  later,  we 
should  be  again  challenged  by  France,  when  France  probably 
would  be  better  armed,  and  more  secure  of  powei-ful  alliances." 

Three  reserve  anoies  are  to  be  formed  in  Germany  .  one, 
the  strongest,  at  Berlin;  another  on  the  Rhine,  and  a  third — 
on  account  of  Austria's  suspicious  attitude — in  Solesia  at  Gio- 
gan.  The  latter  was  purely  a  defensive  mea.sure.  The  troops 
on  the  Rhine  were  to  be  commanded  by  the  Duke  of  Mecklen 
burg ;  those  at  Berlin  by  General  von  Cansticn,  an^l  tho.se  at- 
Glogan  by  Genei'al  von  Lowenfield. 

Towards  evening  the  military  band  played  before  the  Jiouse 
of  the  King,  who  had  been  quartered  in  Commercy  chiring  the 
war  of  Liberation,  and  the  street  boys  were  quite  pieased  to 
hold  the  notes  of  the  music  for  the  men  who  played  tlie  horns 
and  hautboys. 


38  Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War, 

The  Chancellor  at  dinner  began  to  speak  of  his  sons,  and  said, 
"I  hope  now  that  I  shall  keep  at  least  one  of  my  young  fellows — I 
mean  Herbert,  who  is  on  his  way  home.  He  had  got  very 
much  in  his  place  in  the  field.  When  he  lay  wounded  near  us  in 
Pont-a-Mousson,  and  common  dragoons  came  to  see  him,  he 
conversed  ^vith  them  more  freely  than  with  the  officers." 

At  tea  it  was  mentioned  that  in  1814  the  Kiag  had  lived 
in  the  very  same  street,  and,  indeed,  in  a  house  close  by  the 
one  he  was  quartered  in  now.  The  Minister  said,  "  My  plan 
for  his  Majesty  in  the  future  campaign  is  to  send  the  Staff 
Guard  on  in  front.  The  country  right  and  left  of  the  road 
must  be  thoroughly  searched  by  a  company  of  soldiers,  and  the 
head-quarters  must  keep  together.  Sentinels  must  be  placed 
at  short  distances  from  one  another.  The  King  agreed  to  this 
plan,  when  I  told  him  that  it  had  been  followed  in  1814.  At 
that  time  the  monarchs  did  not  drive,  but  always  rode,  and 
Russian  soldiers,  twenty  feet  apart,  lined  the  road."  Some 
one  observed  that  it  was  quite  possible  that  peasants  or  Francs- 
tireurs  might  fire  on  the  King  in  the  carriage. 

In  the  evening  some  more  articles  were  sent  to  Germany, 
amongst  others  one  on  the  co-operation  of  the  Saxons  at 
Gravelotte,  whose  praises  the  Chief  never  tired  in  repeating.  It 
ran  thus : 

"In  the  battle  at  Metz  on  the  18th,  the  Saxons  distin- 
guished themselves  by  their  usual  heroic  bravery,  and  con- 
tributed most  essentially  to  the  attainment  of  the  object  of  the 
German  troops.  To  bring  the  Saxon  Army  Corps  into  the 
field,  very  long  marches  from  the  right  to  the  extreme  left 
wing  had  been  made  the  day  before,  and  even  on  the  18th  it- 
self. In  spite  of  these  fatigues  they  attacked  Avith  extraordin- 
ary energy,  drove  the  enemy  back,  and  completely  fulfilled  the 
duty  they  were  charged  with,  preventing  the  enemy  breakiilg 
through  towards  Thionville.  Their  losses  in  these  actions 
amounted  to  2200  men." 

About  nine  o'clock  the  Bavarians  began  to  march  through. 
They  went  along  the  Rue  de  la  Banque,  and  therefore  passed 
the  King's  abode  as  well  as  ours.  There  were  more  French 
spectators  than  was  convenient  to  us,  on  the  pavement,  on  both 
sides  of  the  rows  of  trees  which  border  the  wide  street.  The 
light  cavalry  in  green  uniforms  turned  up  with  red  ;  dark-blue 
cuirassiers,  among  whom  were  many  fine  men  ;  lancers,  artillery, 
infantry,  regiment  after  regiment  marqfced  for  several  hours 


The  Francs-tireurs,  39 

past  the  Commander-in-Chief  of  the  German  armies.  As  they 
marched  in  front  of  the  house  where  the  King  stood,  they  raised 
loud  ringing  hurrahs,  while  the  cavalry  brandished  their  sabres, 
and  the  infantry  held  up  their  right  hands  and  lowered  their 
colours,  amid  blaring  fanfare  of  the  trumpets  of  the  cavalry,  and 
music  from  the  bands  of  the  infantry.  Who,  after  the  war  of 
1866,  or  even  three  months  ago,  would  have  thought  it  pos- 
sible 1 

More  articles  were  written  for  the  post,  and  others  for  the 
telegraph.  Our  people  press  rapidly  forwards.  The  heads  of 
the  German  columns  already  stand  between  Chalons  and  Eper- 
nay.  In  Germany  the  three  reserve  armies  which  have  been 
talked  of  for  some  days  are  in  process  of  formation.  In  oppos- 
ition to  our  plan  of  creating  a  safe  frontier  on  the  west,  by  the 
incorporation  of  French  territory,  neutral  powers  for  the 
most  part  raise  difficulties,  especially  England,  which,  jeal- 
ous of  us  for  some  time  past,  shows  a  disposition  to  tie  our 
hands.  The  accounts  from  St.  Petersburg  appear  to  be  better, 
where  the  Emperor,  though  not  without  some  doubts  of  the 
measures  we  have  in  view,  seems  disposed  to  favor  us,  and 
where  too  the  Archduchess  Helena  has  given  us  her  active  sym- 
pathy. We  stand,  however,  by  our  plan,  dictated  by  the 
necessity  of  securing  South  Germany  from  the  attacks  of  France 
once  and  for  all,  and  of  thus  making  it  independent  of  French 
politics,  the  achievement  of  which  will  doubtless  be  demanded 
by  the  national  feeling  with  an  energy  quite  irresistible.  The 
troops  before  us  report  much  exciting  news  about  the  bands  of 
Francs-tireurs  which  have  been  formed.  Their  uniform  is  of 
such  a  kind  that  they  can  hardly  be  known  as  soldiers,  and 
what  they  do  wear  to  distinguish  them  as  such  can  be  easily 
thrown  away.  One  of  these  fellows  when  a  troop  of  our  caval- 
ry is  going  along  the  road,  lies  apparently  sunning  himself  in 
the  ditch  near  a  wood.  As  soon  as  our  men  have  passed,  up . 
he  starts  and  fires  his  rifle  at  them,  which  he  had  kept  concealed 
in  the  neighboring  bush,  and  runs  into  the  wood,  out  of  which, 
perfectly  acquainted  with  the  paths  in  it,  he  comes  again,  a 
little  further  on,  an  innocent  countryman  in  a  blouse.  I  am 
inclined  to  think  that  these  are  not  defenders  of  their  country, 
but  assassins,  who  should  be  hanged  without  ceremony,  if  they 
fall  into  our  hands. 

At  diimer  Count  Seckendorf,  Adjutant  in  the  Crown  Prince's 
general  stafi",  was  one  of  the  guests.     (  Vide  note  1,  at  end  of 


40  Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War. 

chapter.)  He  denied  that  the  Crown  Prince  had,  as  reported, 
caused  some  treacherous  French  peasants  to  be  shot ;  on  the 
contrary,  said  the  Prince,  he  had  always  behaved  with  great 
mildness  and  forbearance,  even  towards  officers  of  the  enemy, 
who  showed  great  want  of  soldier-like  breeding. 

Count  Bohlen,  who  is  always  full  of  fun  and  anecdotes,  said, 
"When  the  battery  von  Breinitz,  on  the  18th,  was  sustaining 
such  a  sharp  fire  that  in  a  short  time  nearly  all  its  horses,  and 
most  of  its  men,  were  lying  on  the  ground  either  dead  or 
wounded,  the  captain  said,  as  he  rallied  the  last  who  were  left 
standing,  '  A  fine  fight  this,  isn't  it  ?  " 

The  Chief  said,  "Last  night  I  asked' the  sentinel  outside  the 
door,  who  he  was,  and  what  he  got  to  eat,  and  I  heard  that  the 
man  had  not  had  anything  to  eat  for  four-and-twenty  hours. 
Then  I  went  in  and  found  the  cook,  and  cut  a  great  hunch  of 
bread,  and  took  it  to  him,  which  seemed  to  be  most  acceptable 
to  him." 

The  conversation  then  turned  from  Hatzfeld's  prefecture  to 
other  prefects  and  commissaries  in  spe,  and  when  first  one  and 
theit  another  name,  which  were  all  well  known,  were  objected 
to,  the  Minister  remarked,  "  Our  officials  in  France  may  be 
allowed  to  do  a  few  stupid  things,  if  only  their  administration 
in  general  be  energetic." 

Friday,  August  26. — They  say  that  we  are  to  advance  to-day 
tOAvards  Sainte-Manehould,  where  our  troops,  as  I  telegraphed 
this  morning  to  Germany,  have  taken  prisoners  800  of  the 
Mobiles.  This  expected  move  was  announced  by  Taglioni,  who 
by  the  way  gave  us  yesterday  some  most  excellent  caviare, 
which  he  had,  I  believe,  from  fat  Borck.  The  first  thing  this 
5n(>rning,  I  wrote  an  article  on  the  Francs-tireurs,  and  describ- 
ed in  detail  their  delusions  as  to  what  is  permitted  in  warfare. 
Then — for  the  Chief  had  gone  out,  some  said  to  see  the  King, 
others  to  make  a  tour  of  inspection  in  the  upper  town  {vide 
note  2,  at  end  of  chapter) — in  company  with  Abeken  I  went  to 
see  the  fine  old  church  of  Saint-Pierre.  The  walls  and  pillars 
in  tliis  church  are  not  so  high,  and  the  latter  much  less  slender 
thaii  is  usual  in  Gothic  churches,  but  the  whole  is  very  elegant. 
On  on(!  of  the  walls  is  a  skeleton  of  marble,  presented  by  one 
of  the  'luchesses,  who  loved  her  husband  in  such  a  marvellous 
fashion  that  when  he  died  she  had  his  heart  preserved  in  the 
hojid  of  tliis  skeleton.  The  windows  are  filled  with  painted, 
"lass,   wjuch  throws  a  colored  shade  over  the  nave.     Abeken 


A  Cartfv2  of  Franc-tireur  Prisoners.  41 

was  strangely  moved  and  excited  by  it.  He  cited  passages 
from  '  Faust,'  and  showed  himself  for  onoe  quite  the  romanticist 
he  is  or  wants  to  be  taken  for.  I  fear  that  with  the  aesthetic 
tendencies  of  his  character  he  imbibed  during  his  residence  in 
Rome,  where  he  was  preacher  to  the  embassy,  a  strong  leaning 
to  the  Catholic  church,  which  was  not  weakened  by  the  fact 
that  distinguished  people  in  Berlin,  to  whose  circles  he  had  the 
entree,  were  enthusiastic  for  it,  and  his  heart  will  never  be  in 
the  work  if  he  has  to  form  front  against  that  Church. 

On  the  26th  we  did  move  on,  but  not  towards  Sainte-Mene- 
hould,  where  it  was  still  unsafe,  and  Francs-tireurs  and  Gardes 
Mobiles  were  hovering  about,  but  to  Clermont  in  Argonne, 
where  we  arrived  about  seven  o'clock  in  the  evening.  We  met 
first  some  Bavarian  troops  and  baggage  wagons,  from  whom 
the  King,  who  was  just  before  us  on  the  road,  received  a  salvo 
of  hurrahs,  of  which  the  Chancellor  came  in  for  a  share.  Then 
we  overtook,  one  after  the  other,  the  31st  Regiment,  the  96th, 
and  the  66th,  and  afterwards  passed  some  Hussars  and  Uhlans, 
and  lastly  some  Saxon  artillerists.  Just  outside  a  wood,  not 
far  from  a  village  that,  if  I  mistake  not,  is  named  Triancourt. 
we  passed  a  vehicle  containing  captured  Francs-tireurs,  and  be- 
hind them  a  second  containing  their  arms  and  knapsacks,  and 
the  weapons  of  some  other  people  of  the  same  kind.  Most  of 
these  fellows  hung  their  heads,  and  one  was  crying.  The  Chief 
halted  and  spoke  to  them.  He  did  not  seem  to  have  had  any- 
thing very  cheering  to  say.  Afterwards  a  superior  officer,  who 
rode  up  to  the  Councillors'  carriage  and  got  a  friendly  glass  of 
cognac,  told  us  that  these  fellows  or  comrades  of  theirs,  had,  the 
day  before,  not  far  from  this  place,  shot  or  murdered  a  major 
of  Uhlans,  named  von  Fries  or  Friesen.  When  taken  prison- 
ers, they  had  not  behaved  like  soldiers,  but  had  escaped  from 
their  escort,  but  in  the  vineyards  to  which  they  had  crept,  the 
troopers,  assisted  by  some  riflemen,  had  driven  them  up  into 
a  comer  like  game,  and  some  of  them  were  again  captured, 
others  shot  or  cut  down.  It  is  evident  that  the  war  is  now 
beginning,  in  consequence  of  the  practices  of  these  Francs- 
tireurs,  to  take  a  savage  turn.  The  soldier  looks  on  them 
henceforward  as  men  who  meddle  with  things  with  which  by 
right  they  have  nothing  to  do,  as  those  who  do  not  belong  to 
•  the  profession,  as  mere  bunglers,  and  he  hardly  needs  to  add 
to  that  that  they  are  likely  enough  to  lie  in  wait  to  shoot  him. 
We  arrived  at  Clermont  wet  through,  for  we  had,  twice  on 
4 


4  2  Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War. 

the  way,  been  overtaken  by  heavy  showers  of  rain  and  hail, 
and  with  the  exception  of  Keudell  and  Hatzfeld,  we  took  up 
oivr  abode  in  the  town  school,  on  the  left  side  of  the  principal 
street.  The  King  was  quartered  just  opposite.  In  the  even- 
ing we  had  an  opportunity  of  taking  a  look  at  the  place.  Re- 
turning to  our  quarters  we  found  the  Minister  had  gone,  and 
left  word  for  us  to  follow  him  to  the  Hotel  des  Voyageurs, 
where  we'  were  to  dine  with  him,  our  cooking  wagon  being 
late,  or  not  having  arrived.  We  went  there  and  found  food 
and  places  at  the  Chief's  table,  in  a  sort  of  back-room  used  for 
skittles,  and  full  of  noise  and  tobacco-smoke.  An  officer  with 
a  long  black  beard,  wearing  the  cross  of  St.  John,  dined  with  us. 
This  was  Prince  Pless.  He  said  that  the  captive  French  officers 
at  Pont-a-Mousson  behaved  in  a  very  arrogant  and  shameless 
way,  and  spent  the  whole  night  in  drinking  and  playing  hazard. 
A  general  had  wanted  a  private  carriage,  as  proper  for  his 
rank,  and  had  behaved  in  a  very  unseemly  way  when  it  was,  as 
was  natural,  refused  him.  The  Francs-tireurs  and  their  un- 
mentionable mode  of  warfare  were  then  talked  of ;  and  the 
Minister  mentioned,  what  Abeken  had  told  me  already,  that 
when  he  overtook  some  of  them  in  the  road  this  afternoon,  he 
had  given  them  a  terrible  lecture.  "  I  told  them,  '  Vous  serez 
tous  pendus ;  voios  n'etes  pas  soldats,  vous  etes  des  assassins  f 
upon  which  some  of  them  began  to  whiae."  That  the  Chancel- 
lor is  anything  but  hard  we  have  already  seen,  and  shall  see 
often  again. 

In  the  morning  a  little  quiet  but  ingenious  contrivance  and 
re-arrangement  was  required  to  fit  our  sleeping-room  for  our 
very  different  requirements.  It  became,  without  loosing  its 
fundamental  character,  at  once  Bureau,  dining-room,  and  tea- 
room. In  the  artistic  hands  of  Theiss  some  trestles,  on  which 
stood  a  kneading-trough,  a  cask  raised  to  the  necessary  height 
by  a  not  very  high  box,  a  door  which  we  appropriated,  and 
which  was  laid  by  the  artist  on  the  top  of  the  kneading-trough 
and  cask,  made  us  a  magnificent  table,  at  which  the  Chancellor 
himself  afterwards  dined  and  breakfasted,  and  which  between 
the  meal  times  served  as  writing  table  for  the  secretaries  and 
Councillors,  at  which  world-stirring  ideas  of  the  Count  in  the 
room  below  were  reduced  to  shape  and  written  out,  and  tlie 
most  important  dispatches,  instructions,  telegrams^nd  news- 
paper articles  penned.  Tlie  want  of  chairs  was  hscfjpily  sup- 
I'lied  by  a  form  from  the  kitchen  and  an  empty  box  or  two ;  a 


The  Chancellor's  Work-roorti.  43 

cracked  and  altogether  shaky  washhand-basin  was  found,  ■which 
Willisch,  clever  as  an  old  sailor  in  mending  and  patching,  made 
tight  again  by  the  help  of  sealing-wax.  For  candlesticks,  the 
Minister  and  ourselves  made  use  of  the  empty  wine-bottles — 
champagne  bottles  answer  the  purpose  best— and  in  the  necks 
of  these,  good  stearine  candles  burn  as  brightly  as  in  the  sockets 
of  silver  candlesticks.  Not  so  easily  and  happily  as  in  the 
matters  of  utensUes,  furniture  and  lights,  did  we  contrive  about 
getting  the  necessary  water  either  for  washing  or  drinking 
purposes,  for  the  crowds  of  men  who  had  been  besieging  the 
little  wells  of  Clermont  during  the  two  days  before  had  pumped 
away  all  the  water  for  themselves  and  their  horses.  Only  one 
of  us,  who  was  something  of  a  grumbler,  complained  of  these 
little  misfortunes  ;  the  rest,  including  Abeken,  who  was  an  old 
traveller,  seemed  to  take  them,  as  I  did,  good-humoredly,  as 
giving  a  flavor  to  the  expedition. 

In  two  little  school-rooms  on  the  ground-floor  the  Bureau  of 
the  War  Minister,  or  the  general  stafi",  was  established  ;  and 
there  quartermasters  and  soldiers  ^vrote  on  the  school  tables 
and  the  masters'  desks.  On  the  walls  were  difierent  kinds 
of  apparatus  for  teaching,  on  one  were  maps  and  sentences  and 
a  black-board  for  teaching  arithmetic,  on  the  other  a^i  advice 
most  applicable  to  these  bad  times  :  '^^  Faites-voits  une  etude  de 
la  patience  et  sachez  ceder  par  raisonJ' 

While  we  were  still  drinking  our  coffee  in  the  morning,  the 
Chief  came  and  angrily  inquired,  why  the  proclamation,  accord- 
ing to  which  certain  offences  of  the  population  contrary  to 
military  law  were  to  be  punished  with  death  had  not  yet  been 
posted  up.  By  his  order. I  went  to  inquire  of  Stieber,  who  had 
found  out  good  quarters  for  himself  in  the  other  part  of  the 
town,  and  I  returned  with  the  answer  that  Abeken  had  given 
the  proclamation  to  the  general  staff,  and  that  it  was  his  duty 
as  the  director  of  the  field  police  to  post  up  only  such  procla- 
mations as  issued  from  his  Majesty. 

I  took  this  message  to  the  Chancellor  and  received  some  more 
commissions.  I  saw  that  he  was  hardly  better  put  up  than  we. 
He  had  slept  that  night  on  a  mattress  on  the  floor,  his  revol- 
ver within  reach,  and  he  worked  at  a  table  so  small  that  he 
could  hardly  put  both  elbows  on  it  at  once,  in  a  corner  near  the 
door.  TJfc  room  was  meanly  furnished  ;  there  was  neither  sofa, 
arm-chair,  nor  anything  of  the  kind.  He  who  for  years  had 
made  the  history  of  the  world,  in  whose  head  its  currents  met  and 


44  Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War. 

changed  character  according  to  his  plans,  had  hardly  a  place  to 
lay  his  head,  while  stupid  courtiers  in  their  comfortable  four- 
posters  had  the  sound  sleep  of  the  idle  classes  ;  and  even  M. 
Stieber  himself  had  managed  to  get  much  more  comfortably 
housed  than  our  master. 

On  this  occasion  I  saw  a  letter  which  had  fallen  into  our 
hands,  having  been  sent  from  Paris  some  days  ago,  and  address- 
ed to  a  French  officer  of  high  rank.  According  to  its  contents, 
the  circles  to  which  he  belonged  neither  believed  in  the  possi- 
bility of  further  resistance  nor  hoped  to  maintain  the  dynasty 
on  the  throne.  Tlie  writer  did  not  know  what  to  hope  or  ex- 
pect in  the  immediate  future  ;  a  Republic  without  Republicans, 
or  a  monarchy  without  believers  in  monarchy,  appeared  to  be 
the  choice  which  he  saw  before  him.  To  him  the  Republicans 
appeared  too  much  in  love  with  moderation ;  the  Monarchists 
too  self-seeking.  They  were  enthusiastic,  he  said,  about  the 
army,  but  no  one  showed  any  great  activity  in  joining  it  in  order 
to  fight  the  enemy. 

I  shall  here  introduce  some  interesting  notes  from  the  jour- 
nal of  a  Bavarian  superior  office,  which  have  been  placed  at  my 
disposal.  In  May,  1871,  on  the  return  march  to  Clermont  he 
was  quartered  in  the  same  house  in  which  King  William  had 
lived  during  our  residence  there,  and  he  alse  visited  the  hill  and 
its  chapel  to  St.  Anne.  There,  too,  he  met  the  priest,  made 
his  acquaintance,  and  learnt  from  him  all  sorts  of  interesting 
things.  The  remains  of  walls  which  we  noticed  had  belonged 
to  an  old  castle,  which  was  afterwards,  turned  into  a  cloister, 
destroyed  at  the  time  of  the  first  French  Revolution.  The 
priest  was  an  old  man  who  had  lived  in  the  place  for  fifty-six 
years.  He  was  a  man  of  much  feeling,  and  a  good  patriot. 
The  misfortunes  of  his  country  lay  heavy  on  his  heart,  but  he 
did  not  deny  that  it  was  a  mischievous  arrogance  which  had 
brought  this  sad  fate  upon  it.  Of  this  arrogance  he  gave  a 
curious  proof,  which  I  will  give  as  nearly  as  I  can  in  the 
Father's  own  words. 

"  Like  you,  gentlemen,  the  French  Cuirassiers  appeared  here 
suddenly  last  August.  The  beautiful  hill  tempted  them  too, 
to  admire  the  country  from  its  summit.  They  went  joking 
along,  and  coming  to  my  church,  standing  open,  as  usual,  they 
said  that  a  public-house  would  have  been  more  in  j^ce  here. 
Whereupon  they  got  a  cask  of  wine,  which  they  drank  in  the 
chapel,  after  which  they  had  dancing  and  singing.     Suddenly 


The  Dog  and  the  Chancellor.  45 

there  appeared  a  sturdy  cuirassier,  who  carried  on  his  back  a 
dog  dressed  in  woman's  clothes,  which  he  set  down  in  the  circle 
of  dancers.  '  C'est  Monsieur  de  Bi»marck  /'  he  cried,  and  their 
noisy  delight  over  this  wretched  joke  seemed  as  if  it  would 
never  end.  They  pidled  the  dog  by  the  tail,  and  as  he  howled 
they  shrieked,  ^C'esl  le  langage  de  Monsieur  de  Bismarck  /' 
They  danced  with  the  creature,  and  at  last  the  soldier  got  it  on 
his  back  again ;  after  which  they  formed  a  procession,  which 
Avas  to  go  down  the  hill  and  through  the  town.  This  excited 
me  past  bearing.  I  begged  a  hearing,  and  told  them  it  was  a 
shame  to  compare  any  man,  even  an  enemy,  to  a  bnite.  In 
vain ;  they  overpowered  me  with  noise  and  thrust  me  on  one 
side.  In  a  rage  I  called  out  to  them  :  *  Look  to  it,  that  the 
punishment  due  to  insolence  does  not  fall  on  your  head.'  How- 
ever, they  would  not  be  warned ;  the  noise  went  on  and  the 
crowd  went  away  with  their  dog,  shouting  and  brawling,  un- 
happily, meeting  only  applause  all  through  the  town.  Ah  ?  all 
that  I  feared  was  only  too  completely  realized.  Fourteen  days 
had  not  passed  before  Bismarck  stood  as  conqueror  on  the  veiy 
spot  where  he  had  been  ridiciiled  in  so  absurd  a  fashion.  I  saw 
this  man  of  iron,  but  I  did  not  then  think  him  such  a  terrible 
person,  or  that  he  would  make  my  poor  France  bleed  to  death. 
Yes,  I  can  never  forget  the  day  when  these  soldiers  sinned 
against  him  so." 

The  author  of  the  journal  continues :  "  We  returned  to  our 
quarters,  and  our  host  willingly  showed  us  the  room  in  which 
the  Emperor  "William  lived  and  the  bed  on  which  he  slept.  The 
old  gentleman  could  not  sufficiently  praise  the  Emperor's  chival- 
rous manners,  and  he  did  not  think  Bismarck  nearly  so  dread- 
ful as  he  was  represented.  The  Count  had  come  there  one  day 
to  see  the  Emperor  but  had  to  wait  a  very  long  time,  for 
Moltke  was  already  engaged  with  him.  He  had  taken  a  walk 
with  Bismarck  through  the  garden  while  he  was  waiting,  and 
found  him  very  pleasant.  He  spoke  French  admirably,  and 
no  one  would  have  thought  him  such  a  terrible  Pi-ussian.  He 
had  talked  with  him  about  all  kinds  of  rural  matters,  and  had 
shoAvn  himself  as  much  at  home  there  as  in  politics.  Such  a 
man,  he  said  emphatically,  is  what  France  needs." 

Sunday,  August  28. — When  we  got  out  of  bed  a  fine,  soft 
rain  was  fKling  from  a  dull  grey  sky,  reminding  us  that  Goethe, 
not  far  from  here,  in  1792,  in  frightful  weather,  amidst  mud 
and  dirt,  had  passed  the  days  before  and  after  the  caixuonade  at 


46  Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War. 

Valmy.  I  went  to  General  Sheridan,  who  had  found  a  home 
for  himself  in  the  back-room  of  an  apothecary's  shop,  and  by 
the  Chief's  directions,  took  him  the  Fall  Mall  Gazette.  Then  I 
wished  to  get  from  the  Saxons  some  details  of  the  1 8th,  but  at 
first  I  could  only  find  single  soldiers  who  had  no  time  to  tell 
me  anything.  At  last,  by  chance,  I  came  upon  one  of  the 
Landwehr  officers,  a  country  gentleman,  Fuchs-Nordhof,  from 
Mocker,  near  Leipsic.  But  he  could  not  tell  me  much  that  was 
new.  The  Saxons  had  fought  nobly  near  Sainte-Marie-aux- 
Chenes  and  at  Saint-Privat,  and  had  saved  the  Guard  there,  who 
had  fallen  somewhat  into  disorder,  from  entire  defeat.  The 
Freiberg  riflemen  had  taken  the  French  position  on  the  right 
attack,  at  the  point  of  the  bayonet  without  firing  a  shot.  The 
Leipsic  regiment,  the  107th,  had  lost  many  men  and  almost  all 
its  officers.  This  ^a&  all.  He  told  me  also  that  Krausshaar 
had  fallen. 

When  the  Minister  rose  we  had  plenty  to  do.  Our  cause 
makes  excellent  progi'ess.  I  am  to  telegraph  that  the  Saxon 
cavalry  at  Voussieres  and  Boumont,  in  the  North,  have  scattered 
the  Twelfth  Chasseurs.  I  learnt,  and  was  allowed  to  repeat 
to  others,  that  the  determination  to  take  some  provinces  from 
France  was  still  firmly  adhered  to,  and  that  peace  would  be 
concluded  on  no  other  terms.  An  article  sanctioned  by  the 
Chief,  explained  our  reasons  in  the  following  manner  : 

The  German  armies,  since  the  victorious  days  of  Mars-la- 
Tour  and  Gravelotte.  have  continually  advanced,  and  the  time 
appears  to  have  come  when  the  question  may  be  put,  under 
what  conditions  Germany  will  conclude  peace  with  France.  In 
this  we  must  not  be  governed  by  the  love  of  glory  or  the  lust 
of  conquest,  and  as  little  by  the  magnanimity  dinned  into  our 
ears  by  the  foreign  press.  In  all  our  proceedings  we  have  to 
consider  merely  how  best  to  protect  Germany,  and  especially 
South  Germany,  from  fresh  attacks  of  French  ambition,  such  as 
we  have  had  renewed  more  than  a  dozen  times  from  Louis  XIV. 
to  the  present  day,  and  which  will  be  repeated  as  often  as 
France  feels  herself  strong  enough  to  do  so.  The  enormous 
sacrifices,  both  in  men  and  money,  which  the  German  people 
have  made  in  this  war,  and  all  our  victories,  would  be  in  vain, 
if  the  power  of  France  to  attack  Avere  not  weakened,  and  Ger- 
many's capacity  of  defence  not  strengthened.  Th«  German 
people  have  a  i-ight  to  demand  this  If  we  contented  ourselves 
with  a  mere  change  of  dynasty  or  with  a  contribution,  no  sub- 


The  Necessary  Conditions  of  Peace.  41 

stantial  improvement  in  our  condition  would  ensue.  ^Nothing 
would  prevent  this  war  from  being  the  first  of  a  series  of  wars ; 
and  especially  the  sting  of  the  present  defeat  would  drive  the 
pride  of  the  French  to  revenge  the  German  victories.  The 
contribution  would  soon  be  forgotten,  the  riches  of  France 
being  so  great  in  comparison  with  our  own.  Each  new  dynasty, 
in  order  to  maintain  itself,  would  seek  compensation  for  the 
disaster  of  the  dynasty  now  in  power  by  \'ictories  over  us 
Magnanimity  is  no  doubt  a  very  estimable  virtue ;  but,  in 
politics,  magnanimity,  as  a  rule,  gets  little  thanks.  In  1866 
we  took  not  a  single  acre  of  ten-itory  from  the  Austrians. 
Have  we  found  that  we  are  thanked  in  Vienna  for  this  self- 
denial  ]  Are  they  not  full  there  of  bitter  feelings  of  revenge, 
simply  because  they  were  beaten  ]  And  further,  the  French 
growled  at  us  from  envy  because  of  Koniggratz,  where,  not  they, 
but  a  foreign  power  were  conquered.  How  Avill  they  ever  for- 
give us  the  victories  of  Worth  and  Metz,  whether  we  magnani- 
mously renounce  or  do  not  renounce  any  cession  of  territory  1 
How  they  will  dream  of  vengeance  for  the  defeats  which  they 
have  now  suffered  at  our  hands  ! 

If  in  1814  and  1815  the  French  were  treated  otherwise, 
than  as  we  here  indicate,  the  result  of  the  leniency  with  which 
France  was  then  dealt  with  has  sufficiently  proved  that  it  Was 
a  mistaken  clemency.  Had  the  French  been  weakened  in 
those  days,  as  it  was  desirable  they  should  have  been  in  the  in- 
terests of  the  peace  of  the  world,  we  should  not  have  had  to 
be  carrying  on  this  war  now. 

Tlie  danger  lies,  not  in  Bonapartism,  although  Bonapartism 
is  specially  pledged  to  a  Chauvinistic  foreign  policy.  It  lies  in 
the  incurable,  ineradicable  arrogance  of  that  portion  of  the 
French  people  which  give*  the  tone  to  France.  This  trait  of 
the  French  national  character,  which  will  prescribe  its  line  of 
action  to  every  dynasty,  let  it  caU  itself  what  it  may,  even  to  a 
French  republic,  A\-ill  continually  be  a  goad  to  attacks  upon 
peaceable  neighbors.  He  who  desires  the  load  of  military 
armament  in  Europe  to  be  lightened,  he  who  wants  to  see  such 
a  peace  as  will  permit  nothing  of  the  kind,  must  wish  for  a 
solid  and  impregnable  barrier  against  the  war-chariot  of  the 
French  lust  of  conquest,  not  in  a  moral  but  a  material  form  ; 
that  for  the  future  it  may  be  made  as  difficult  as  possible  to 
the  French  to  invade  South  Grermany  with  an  army  compara- 
tively small,  so  as  by  the  possibility  of  such  an  invasion  to  con- 


48  Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War. 

strain  the  Germans  of  the  south,  even  in  a  time  of  peace,  to 
consider  France.  To  secure  South  Germany  by  defensible 
frontiers  is  our  present  task.  To  fulfil  it  is  to  liberate  Ger- 
many entirely — is,  in  fact,  to  complete  the  war  of  liberation  of 
1813  and  1814. 

The  least,  therefore,  which  we  must  demand,  the  least  which 
the  German  nation  in  all  its  parts,  but  especially  our  country- 
men and  fellow-soldiers  beyond  the  Maine,  will  demand,  is  the 
cession  of  the  sallyports  of  France  towards  Germany,  the 
conquest  of  Strassbarg  and  Metz  for  Germany.  To  expect  a 
lasting  peace  from  the  dismantling  of  these  fortresses  would  be 
a  short-sighted  illusion  of  the  same  kind  as  the  hope  that  it  is 
possible  to  gain  the  French  by  mere  clemency.  It  must  not  be 
forgotten,  moreover,  that  when  we  demand  these  cessions  we 
are  demanding  the  cession  of  territory  originally  German,  a 
considerable  part  of  which  is  still  German,  the  inhabita];it.s  of 
which  may  perhaps  again  learn  in  time  to  feel  their  German 
nationality. 

To  us  change  of  dynasty  is  a  matter  of  indifference ;  a  wp.t 
contribution  might  weaken  France  for  a  time  financially. 
What  we  want  is  the  increased  security  of  the  German  frontier, 
and  this  is  only  attainable  by  the  transformation  of  the  two 
fortresses  which  threaten  us,  into  bulwarks  to  protect  us.  From 
being  French  fortresses  of  aggression  Strassburg  and  Metx  must 
become  German  places  of  defence. 

He  who  sincerely  desires  peace  on  the  continent  of  Europe, 
he  who  wishes  that  nations  should  lay  doA\'n.  their  arjns,  and 
that  the  plough  should  prevail  over  the  sword,  must  wish  above 
all  that  the  neighbors  of  France  on  the  East  may  secure  tiiiH 
position,  for  France  is  the  only  disturber  of  peace,  and  ^vill  re- 
main so,  so  long  as  she  has  the  powef. 

"Note  (1). — Among  other  matters  we  talked  at  dimier  of  the  Augusten- 
!.nirg  prince  who  was  serving  with  the  Bavarians.  The  opinion  expressed  of 
him  was  much  what  was  said  to  me  some  months  later  by  a  kindly  disposed 
friend  of  his,  who  was  at  that  time  professor  in  Kiel,  in  a  letter  to  myself. 
"  We  all  know  that  he  is  not  born  for  any  heroic  exploits.  It  is  not  his  na- 
ture. It  is  a  family  trait  that  he  rather  takes  to  a  persistent  waiting  on 
Providence,  an  expectation  of  the  marvellous  things  his  inheritance  is  to 
bring  him.  He  has  never  once  made  any  attempt  at  heroism.  It  would 
have  been  much  more  seemly  if,  instead  of  hanging  about  the  army  as  a 
mere  amateur  of  battle-fields,  he  had  led  a  company  or  a  battalion  of  the 
soldiers  who  were  once  almost  his  own,  as  a  captain  or  a  major,  or,  if  he 
preferred  it  a  Bavarian  company.  Probably  little  would  have  come  of 
it,  but  one  would  have  been  glad  at  least  of  the  goodwill  it  would  have 
sliown." 


Bismarck  at  Bar-le-duc.  49 

Note  (2). — In  the  latter  case  the  following  may  refer  to  our  stay  in  Bar-le- 
l)uf..  Charles  Loizet  says  in  the  Paris  JRevue  Politique  et  Litteraire  for  Feb- 
ruary or  March,  1874  : — "In  a  town  in  eastern  France  which  had  the  sorry 
honor  ot  harboring  the  highest  personages  of  the  invasion  for  several  days, 
and  where  the  forced  march  on  Sedan  was  decided  on  at  a  moment's  notice, 
the  famous  Bismarck  took  a  walk  round  alone,  up  and  down  through  the 
most  outlying  quarters  of  the  town,  indifferent  to  the  ill-wishes  and  the 
amazement  of  tne  people  who  pointed  at  him.  A  man  whose  heart  was 
made  bitter  by  domestic  trouble,  and  who  had  ceased  to  care  for  his  own 
life,  secretly  sought  a  concealed  weapon  for  an  enterprise  which  would  have 
made  a  great  sensation.  It  was  refused  him,  the  people  were  terrified  for 
tear  he  should  find  one.  The  inhabitants  of  the  town,  who  were  very  pa- 
triotic, had  been  previously  disarmed.  The  man  hung  about  for  days,  and 
iiis  plan  went  to  the  grave  with  him.  And  the  Chancellor  went  alone,  in 
uniform,  for  a  walk  through  the  meadows  above  the  upper  town  !  "  The 
vegret  with  which  M.  Loizet  concludes  his  story  has  something  tragi-comical 
n  it. 


50  Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

WE    TURX    NORTHWARDS — THE     CHANCELLOR     IN     REZONVILLE- 
BATTLE   AND    BATTLE-FIELD    OF    BEAUMONT. 


SUNDAY,  August  2S. — At  tea  we  were  surprised  by  great 
news.  With  the  whole  army,  except  what  remains  behind 
for  the  investment  of  Metz,  we  alter  the  direction  of  our  march, 
and  instead  of  going  westward  to  Chalons  we  move  northwards 
under  the  edge  of  the  forest  of  Argonnes  to  the  Ardennes,  and  the 
Meuse  district.  Our  immediate  object  will  be,  it  is  said,  Grand 
Pre.  This  movement  is  owing  to  Marshal  MacMahon,  who, 
with  a  strong  force  to  the  north  of  us,  is  nfarching  to  Metz  to 
relieve  Bazaine. 

On  tlie  29th,  by  ten  o'clock,  we  started.  The  weather, 
which  was  at  the  beginning  of  the  day  rainy  and  cold,  now  im- 
proved, and  the  sky  gradually  cleared.  We  passed  different 
villages,  and  sometimes  a  pretty  chateau  and  park.  On  the 
road  were  Bavarian  camps,  line  infantry,  riflemen,  light  caval- 
ry, and  cuirassiers.  We  drove  through  the  little  town  of 
Varennes,  by  the  small  two-windowed  house  where  Louis  XVI. 
was  arrested  by  the  postmaster  of  Sainte-Menehould,  and 
which  now  contains  a  store  of  scythes  belonging  to  the  firm  of 
Nicot-Jacquesson.  The  first  market  we  came  to  in  the  town, 
with  square-trimmed  lime-trees,  the  little  three-cornered  square, 
which  came  next,  and  the  large  market-place  further  on,  were 
all  full  of  foot  and  horse  soldiers,  wagons,  and  guns.  The 
crowd  of  men  and  animals  was  so  great  that  we  could  with  dif- 
ficulty get  through  them  out  into  the  open  ground,  and  then  it 
was  only  to  pass  through  other  villages  and  by  more  camps, 
past  the  Prussian  artillery,  to  Grand  Pre,  where  the  Chancellor 
took  up  his  quarters  in  the  Grand  Rue,  two  or  three  houses 
from  the  market.  The  King  lived  at  the  apothecary's,  not  far 
off  on  the  left  side  of  the  road,  towards  the  gloomy  old  castle 


Setting  out  for  Beaumont.  51 

above  the  town.  The  second  division  of  the  head-quarters,  in 
which  was  Prince  Karl,  Prince  Leopold  of  Bavaria,  the  Grand 
Duke  of  Weimar,  and  the  Hereditary  Grand  Duke  of  Meck- 
lenburg-Schwerin  had  arrived  at  the  neighboring  village  of 
Ju"\dn.  The  quartermaster  had  got  a  lodging  for  me  not  far 
from  opposite  the  Ghief,  in  a  modest  little  room  belonging  to  a 
milliner,  who  had  left  home.  On  our  arrival  in  the  market- 
place we  saw  there  some  French  prisoners,  and  towards  evening- 
more  came  in.  I  heard  that  a  collision  with  MacMahon's  army 
was  expected  the  next  day. 

In  Grand  Pre,  too,  the  Chief  showed  that  he  had  no  fear  of 
any  murderous  attack  upon  his  person.  He  went  about  the 
narrow  streets  of  the  town  freely  in  the  twilight  without  a 
companion,  in  lonely  places  where  he  was  quite  likely  to  be  at- 
tacked. I  say  this  from  my  own  knowledge — for  I  followed 
him  at  a  little  distance.  It  seemed  to  me  possible  that  I  might 
be  of  use  to  him. 

I  heard  the  next  morning  that  the  King  and  the  Chancellor 
were  going  out  together,  to  be  present  at  the  great  hattue  of  this 
second  French  army.  Remembering  what  the  Chancellor  said 
to  me  at  Pont-a-Mousson,  one  day  when  he  came  back  from 
Rezonville,  and  the  proverb  he  quoted  another  time,  "  It  is  he 
who  makes  himself  green  that  the  goats  will  nibble,"  I  took 
heart  as  the  carriage  drove  up,  and  begged  him  to  take  mo  %vith 
him.  He  answered  "Yes,  but  if  we  stay  out  the  night, 
what  will  you  do  %"  I  replied,  "Never  mind,  Excellency,  t 
shall  be  able  to  take  care  of  myself."  "  Well,  then,  come. 
along,"  said  he  smiling.  He  then  took  another  stroll  to  the 
market-place,  while  I  joyfully  got  together  my  bag,  my  water- 
proof, and  my  faithful  diary,  and  when  he  came  back  and  got 
into  the  carriage,  he  beckoned  to  me  to  take  a  seat  by  his  side. 
A  man  must  have  luck,  as  well  as  do  his  duty,  to  get  on. 

It  was  a  little  after  nine  when  we  started.  First  we  went 
back  a  little  way  on  the  same  road  we  had  come  by  a  few  days 
before,  then  to  the  left,  up  through  vineyards,  past  more  "til- 
lages in  a  hilly  country,  with  columns  of  troops  and  parks  of 
artillery  everywhere  before  us  marching  or  resting,  then  down 
another  road  to  the  right,  through  the  valley  to  the  little  town 
of  Busancy,  Avhich  we  entered  at  eleven  o'clock,  where  we  halo 
ed  m  the  market-place  to  wait  for  the  King. 

The  Count  was  very  communicative  on  the  way.  First  lu 
complained  that  he  was  so  often  disturbed  at  his  work  by  people 


o2  Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War. 

talking  outside  his  door,  "  especially  as  some  of  the  gentlemen 
speak  so  loud.  The  common  inarticulate  noises  do  not  irritate 
me.  Music,  or  the  rattle  of  carriages,  does  not  put  me  out ; 
but  talking,  if  the  words  are  audible,  is  quite  a  different  thing. 
I  then  want  to  know  what  is  being  said,  and  lose  the  thread  of 
my  thoughts." 

Further  on  he  remarked  that  it  was  not  proper  for  me  to  re- 
turn the  military  salutes  of  officers  who  passed  the  carriage. 
The  salute  was  not  to  him  as  Minister  or  Chancellor,  but  simply 
to  his  rank  as  general,  and  officers  might  take  it  amiss  if  a  civ- 
ilian took  their  salutes  as  including  himself. 

He  feared  that  nothing  decisive  would  be  done  to-day,  an 
opinion  which  was  shared  by  some  Prussian  artillery  officers 
standing  by  their  guns  close  to  Busancy,  whom  he  asked  about 
it.  "  This,"  said  he,  "  reminds  me  of  a  wolf  hunt  I  once  had  in 
the  Ardennes,  which  began  just  here.  We  were  for  many  long 
days  up  in  the  snow,  and  at  last  heard  that  they  had  found  the 
tracks  of  a  wolf.  When  we  went  after  him  he  had  vanished. 
So  it  will  be  to-day  with  the  French." 

Then  he  expressed  a  hope  that  he  might  meet  his  second  son 
here,  about  whom  he  frequently  inquired  of  the  officers,  and  he 
remarked,  "  You  see  how  little  Nepotism  there  is  with  us.  He 
has  been  serving  now  twelve  months,  and  has  not  been  promot- 
ed, whUst  others,  who  have  not  served  much  more  than  one 
month  are  ensigns  already."  I  ventured  to  a,sk  how  that  could 
be.  "  Indeed,  I  don't  know,"  replied  he.  "  I  have  particular- 
ly inquired  whether  there  was  any  fault  in  him — drinking  or 
anything  of  that  kind ;  but  no,  he  seems  to  have  conducted 
himself  quite  properly,  and  in  the  cavalry  fight  at  Mars-la-Tour 
he  charged  the  French  square  as  bravely  as  any  man  among 
them."  A  few  weeks  afterwards  both  sons  were  promoted  to 
the  rank  of  officers. 

Then,  amongst  other  things,  he  told  another  of  his  experi- 
ences on  the  evening  of  the  18th  :  "  I  had  sent  my  horse  to  water, 
and  stood  in  the  dusk  near  a  battery  which  was  firing.  The 
French  were  sUent,  but,"  he  continued,  "  when  we  thought  their 
guns  were  disabled,  they  were  only  concentrating  their  guns 
and  mitrailleuses  for  a  last  great  push.  Suddenly  they  began 
a  quite  fearful  fire  with  shells  and  such  like — an  incessant  crack- 
ing and  rolling,  whizzing  and  screaming  in  the  air.  We  were 
separated  from  the  King,  who  had  been  sent  back  by  Roon.  I 
stayed  by  the  battery,  and  thought  to  myself,  '  if  we  have  to 


Field  Commissariat.  63 

retreat,  put  yourself  on  the  first  gun-carriage  you  can  find/ 
"We  now  expected  that  the  French  infantry  would  support  the 
attack,  when  they  might  have  taken  me  prisoner  unless  the 
artillery  carried  me  away  with  them.  But  the  attack  failed, 
and  at  last  the  horses  returned,  and  I  set  off  back  to  the  King 
We  had  gone  out  of  the  rain  into  the  gutter,  for  where  we 
had  ridden  to  the  shells  were  falling  thick,  w"hei'eas  before  they 
had  passed  over  our  heads.  Xext  morning  we  saw  the  deep 
holes  they  had  ploughed  in  the  ground. 

"  The  King  had  to  go  back  farther,  as  I  told  him  to  do,  after 
the  officers  had  made  representations  to  me.  It  was  now  night. 
The  King  said  he  was  hungry,  and  what  could  he  have  to  eat"? 
There  was  plenty  to  drink — -svine  and  bad  rum  from  a  sutler — 
but  not  a  morsel  to  eat  but  dry  bread.  At  last,  in  the  village, 
we  got  a  few  cutlets,  just  enough  for  the  King,  but  not  for  any 
one  else,  so  I  had  to  find  out  something  for  myself.  His 
Majesty  would  sleep  in  the  carriage,  among  dead  horses  and 
badly -wounded  men.  He  afterwards  found  accommodation  in 
a  little  public-house.  The  Chancellor  had  to  look  out  some- 
where else.  The  heir  of  one  of  the  greatest  German  poten- 
tates (the  young  Hereditary  Grand  Duke  of  Mecklenburg) 
kept  watch  by  our  common  carriage,  that  nothing  should  be 
stolen,  and  Sheridan  and  I  set  off  to  find  a  sleeping  place.  We 
came  to  a  house  which  was  still  burning,  and  that  was  too  hot. 
I  asked  at  another,  'full  of  wounded  soldiers.'  In  a  third,  also 
full  of  the  wounded.  In  a  fourth,  just  the  same;  but  T  was 
not  to  be  denied  this  time.  I  looked  up  and  saw  a  window 
which  was  dark.  'What  have  you  got  up  there f  I  asked. 
'More  wounded  soldiers.'  'That  we  shall  see  for  ourselves.'  I 
went  up  and  found  three  empty  beds,  with  good  and  apparently 
fairly  clean  straw  mattresses.  Here  we  took  up  our  night 
quarters  and  I  slept  capitally." 

"Yes,"  said  his  cousin.  Count  Bismarck-Bohlen,  when  the 
Chancellor  told  us  this  story  the  first  time,  and  with  less  detail ; 
"you  did  sleep  sound;  and  so  did  Sheridan,  who — where  he  got 
it  I  don't  know — had  rolled  himself  up  in  white  linen  all  over,, 
and  who  must  have  been  dreaming  of  you,  for  I  heard  him 
sevei-al  times  murmuring,  'O,  dear  Count!'  H'm,  and  the 
Hereditary  Grand  Duke,  who  took  the  thing  very  well,  is  a 
particularly  pleasant  and  agi-eeable  young  fellow."  "The  best 
of  the  stoiy  is,"  said  Bohlen,  "that  there  was  no  necessity  for 
such  a  pinch,  for  we  found  out  that  quite  close  by  there  was  an 


54  Bismarck  in  the  Franco- German  War. 

elegant  country-house,  which  had  been  prepared  for  Bazaine — 
with  good  beds,  sack  in  the  cellar,  and  what  noc — everything  of 
the  best.  One  of  our  generals  lodged  there  and  had  a  capital 
supper  with  his  friends." 

On  our  way  to  Busancy,  the  Chancellor  went  on  to  say, 
"  The  whole  day  I.  had  had  nothing  to  eat  but  the  soldiers'  bread 
and  fat  bacon.  Now  we  found  some  eggs — five  or  six — the 
others  must  have  theirs  boiled ;  but  I  like  them  uncoolf  ed,  so  I 
got  a  couple  of  them  and  broke  them  on  the  pommel  of  my 
sword,  and  was  much  refreshed.  When  it  got  light  I  took  the 
first  warm  food  for  six-and-thirty  hours — it  was  only  pea-sau- 
sage soup,  which  General  Goben  gave  me,  but  it  tasted  quite 
excellent." 

Afterwards  they  gave  us  a  roast  fowl,  "  over  whose  toughness 
the  best  teeth  would  have  despaired."  This  had  been  offered  to 
hun  by  a  sutler,  after  he  had  bought  one  uncooked  from  a  sol- 
dier. Bismarck  had  taken  the  former  and  paid  for  it,  and  gave 
the  soldier's  to  the  sutler,  telling  him,  "  If  we  meet  again  in 
the  course  of  the  war,  you  shall  give  it  to  me  roasted ;  if  not, 
then  I  hope  you  will  pay  it  me  back  in  Berlin."  , 

The  market-place  in  Busancy,  a  small  provincial  town,  was 
full  of  officers.  Hussars,  Uhlans,  messengers,  and  vehicles  of 
every  kind.  After  a  time  Sheridan  and  Forsythe  came.  At 
half-past  eleven  the  King  appeared,  and  immediately  afterwards 
we  started  again,  news  coming  that  the  French  were  unexpect^ 
edly  going  to  make  a  stand. 

Some  four  kilometres  from  Busancy  we  came  on  higher  land 
with  bare  depressions  to  the  right  and  left,  with  heights  again 
beyond.  Suddenly,  a  dull  heavy  crack  in  the  distance.  "  A 
cannon  shot,"  said  the  Minister.  A  little  farther  on,  beyond 
the  depression  on  the  left,  on  a  treeless  rise,  I  saw  two 
columns  of  'infantry  stationed,  and  in  front  of  them  two  guns, 
which  were  being  fired.  But  it  was  so  far  from  us  that  we 
hardly  heard  the  shots.  The  Chief  was  surprised  at  my  sharp 
eyes,  and  put  on  his  spectacles,  as  I  now  for  the  first  time  notice 
that  he  is  obliged  to  do  when  he  wants  to  make  out  anything 
distant.  Little  white  round  clouds,  like  air  balloons,  floated 
for  two  or  three  seconds  in  the  air  over  the  hollow  beyond  \vhich 
the  guns  stood,  and  vanished  with  a  flash  ;  they  were  shrapnels. 
The  guns  must  be  German,  and  seem  to  aim  at  the  slope  be- 
yond the  declivity  on  the  other  side.  We  could  make  out  a 
wood  on  the  slope,  and  in  front  of  it  dark  lines  which  were 


The  Battle  of  Beaumont.  55 

probably  Frenchmen.  Still  further  off  on  the  horizon  a  high 
spur  of  hill,  with  three  or  four  large  trees  on  the  top  of  it,  stood 
forward  ;  on  the  map  this  was  called  the  village  of  Stonn, 
where,  as  we  afterwards  heard,  the  Emperor  Napoleon  remain- 
ed to  watch  the  battle. 

The  firing  on  the  left  soon  ceased.  Bavarian  artillery,  blue 
cuirassiers,  and  green  light  horse  came  along  the  road  past  us 
at  full  trot.  A  little  further  on,  as  we  drove  through  some 
brushwood,  we  heard  a  crackling,  rather  like  a  long  drawn  out 
and  badly-fired  platoon  salvo.  "  A  squirt  of  shot,"  said  Engel, 
turning  round  on  the  box. 

Not  far  from  this,  on  a  spot  where  Bavarian  riflemen  were 
resting  in  the  ditches  and  m  a  clover  field  by  the  side  of  a  road, 
the  Minister  mounted  his  horse,  in  order  to  ride  on  with  the 
King,  who  was  before  us.  We  remained  some  time  standing  on 
the  same  spot,  and  artillery  kept  continually  galloping  past. 
Many  of  the  riflemen  seemed  to  be  dropping  out  of  the  ranlc?. 
One  of  them  begged  mournfully  for  water.  "I  have  had  dysen- 
tery for  five  days,"  he  murmured.  "  Ah,  dear  comtude,  I  am 
dying  ;  no  doctor  can  do  me  any  good  !  Burning  heat  inside, 
nothing  but  blood  running  from  me  !"  We  comforted  him,  and 
gave  him  water  Avith  a  little  cognac.  Battery  after  better}' 
rushed  past  us,  till  at  last  the  road  was  again  free.  Right  m 
front,  on  the  horizon,  which  was  here  very  close  to  us,  the  white 
clouds  from  shells  were  again  rising,  so  that  we  concluded  that 
the  fight  was  going  on  in  a  valley  not  far  off.  The  thunder  of 
the  guns  was  more  distinct,  and  the  snarl  of  the  mitrailleuses,  the 
noLse  of  which  sounds  to  us  something  like  a  coffee-mill  at  work. 
At  last  we  turned  into  a  stubble  field,  on  the  right  from  the 
road,  M'hich  goes  do^^ii  at  that  point  into  a  broad  depression 
to  the  left.  The  ground  now  sloped  gently  to  a  height  on  which 
the  King  had  taken  his  stand  with  our  Chief  and  a  number  of 
princes,  generals,  and  other  officers  of  high  rank,  about  a  thou- 
,sand  paces  in  advance  of  the  horses  and  carriages  which  brought 
them  here.  I  followed  them  over  fresh  ploughed  fields  and 
stubble  fields,  and  a  little  apart  from  them  I  watched,  tUl  night 
fell,  the  Battle  of  Beaumont. 

A  broad  not  very  deep  valley  stretched  before  us,  at  the  bot- 
tom of  which  was  a  beautiful  deep  green  wood  of  leafy  trees. 
Then  an  open,  gently  rising  country  in  which  the  small  tovnx  of 
Beaumont,  with  its  fine  church,  was  "^dsible  a  little  to  the 
ri2;ht.     Still  further  to  the  riarht  were  more  woods.     To  the  left 


56  Bismarck  in  the  Franco-Qei^man  War. 

also,  at  the  edge  of  the  valley  in  the  background,  there  were 
woods  to  which  led  a  road  bordered  with  Italian  poplars.  In 
front  of  them  was  a  small  village,'  or  rather  a  collection  of 
buildings,  belonging  to  an  estate.  Beyond  the  gently-,sweiiing 
ground  before  and  behind  Beaumont  the  prospect  terminated 
with  dark  hills  in  the  distance. 

Now  the  guns  could  be  seen  distinctly  firing.  From  the 
heavy  cloud  of  smoke  hanging  over  it,  the  town  .seemed  to  be 
burning,  and  soon  afterwards  smoke  burst  up  from  the  village 
or  farm  at  the  wood  beyond  the  poplar-trees. 

The  firing  now  slackened  a  little.  First  it  was  in  the  neigh- 
borhood of  the  town,  then  it  moved  upwards  some  to  the  left, 
and  at  last  it  came  from  the  wood  at  the  bottom  of  the  valley, 
apparently  from  the  Bavarian  artillery  which  had  passed  us. 

To  our  left,  behind  a  village  which  lay  a  little  below  our 
station,  and  is  named  in  the  maps  Sommauthe,  a  regiment  of 
Bavarian  hussars  and  another  of  light  cavalry  filled  up  the 
foreground  of  the  picture  for  some  time.  About  four  o'clock 
these  bodies  of  cavalry  galloped  oft'  towards  the  wood  below, 
and  disappeared  there.  Afterwards  more  cavalry.  Uhlans,  if  I 
remember  right,  went  doAvn  into  the  hollow,  beyond  which  we 
first  saw  the  firing  from  the  road  behind  the  place  where  the 
carriages  were  left,  and  rode  on  to  Stonn,  At  the  edge  of  the 
wood  beyond  the  burning  village  in  front  and  to  the  left,  the 
battle  again  seemed  to  be  raging  furiously.  Once  there  was  a 
bright  burst  of  light,  and  then  a  dull  report.  Probably  a  munition 
wagon  had  exploded.  It  was  said  that  the  Crown  Prince  him- 
self had  been  for  some  time  taking  part  in  the  battle. 

It  began  to  get  dark.  The  King  now  sat  on  a  chair,  near 
which  a  straw  fire  had  been  kindled,  for  the  wind  blew  keenly, 
and  watched  the  battle  through  his  field-glass.  The  Chancellor 
watched  it  too  ;  but  he  had  taken  his  place  on  a  grassy  ridge, 
from  which  Sheridan  and  his  adjutant  also  observed  the  spec- 
tacle. We  now  distinctly  perceived  the  flash  of  the  exploding 
shells,  changing  the  little  round  balls  of  vapor  in  a  moment 
into  jagged  stars  of  fire,  and  the  flames  as  they  burst  forth  from 
Beaumont.  The  French  were  retiring  more  and  more  rapidly, 
and  the  battle  disappeared  behind  the  ridge  of  the  treeless 
heights,  which  closed  the  horizon  on  the  left  of  the  woods  be- 
yond the  burning  village.  The  battle,  which  from  its  com- 
mencement appeared  like  the  enemy  covering  his  retreat,  was 
won.     We  had  caught  the  Minister's  wolf,  or  would  catch  him 


Losses  on  both  sides.  57 

Lhat  day  or  next.  The  following  morning  I  wrote  home,  after 
making  out  additional  details. 

The  French,  with  whom  were  the  Emperor  and  his  son,  gave 
way  at  all  points,  and  the  whole  battle  was  in  fact,  a  constant 
advance  of  our  side  and  a  constant  retreat  of  theirs.  They 
never  showed  the  energy  which  they  displayed  in  the  actions 
at  Metz,  and  which  showed  itself  there  latterly  in  vehement  at- 
tacks. They  were  either  greatly  discouraged,  or  the  regiments 
had  in  their  ranks  many  Mobile  guards,  who,  as  may  be  easily 
imagined,  do  not  fight  like  real  soldiers.  Even  their  outposts 
were  badly  set,  so  that  their  rearguard  could  be  at  once  sur- 
prised by  an  attack.  Our  losses  in  killed  and  wounded  were 
far  less  this  time  than  in  the  battles  at  Metz,  when  they  were 
not  far  from  equal  to  those  of  the  French.  They  had  lost, 
however,  frightfully,  especially  in  that  surprise,  and  stUl  more 
frightfully  at  Mouzon,  where  they  were  crowded  back  over  the 
Meuse.  As  far  as  yet  asceiiained  we  have  captured  about 
twenty  guns,  among  which  there  are  eleven  mitrailleuses,  the 
equipages  of  two  tents,  masses  of  baggage  and  military  stores. 
Up  to  the  present  we  have  taken  nearly  15,000  men  prisoners. 
The  French  army,  wliich  was  estimated  at  from  100,000  to 
120,000  on  the  morning  of  the  day  of  battle,  is  now  in  Sedan, 
cut  oflf  from  the  possibility  of  a  farther  march  round  about  the 
extreme  end  of  our  right  wing  towards  Metz,  I  think  we  have 
cause  to  count  August  30  as  one  of  the  best  and  most  produc- 
tive of  our  days  of  victory  in  this  war. 

From  the  position  whence  we  had  witnessed  the  fight  at 
Beaumont,  we  returned,  as  darkness  came  on,  towards  Busancy. 
Everywhere  along  the  road,  and  a  great  way  off  from  it  we 
were  reminded  of  the  night  life  of  a  great  army.  The  road 
was  full  of  Bavarian  infantry.  Further  on  gleamed  the  spiked 
helmets  of  Prussian  line  troops,  whom,  when  we  approached, 
we  found  to  be  the  King's  Grenadiers.  Lastly,  there  were  long 
lines  of  wagons,  which  had  sometimes  lost  their  way,  so  that 
we  were  detained  some  time.  At  one  place,  where  there  was  a 
steep  declivity  between  two  hills,  and  we  were  forced  to  make 
an  unusually  long  halt,  the  Chief  said,  "  I  wonder  whether  the 
reason  why  we  are  stuck  fast  here  is  the  same  as  that  which 
made  the  five  Swabians  capable,  after  they  had  eaten  the 
dumplings,  of  blocking  up  the  defile." 

It  was  pitch  dark  when  we  reached  Busancy.  Round  ix 
blazed  a  hundred  little  fires,  in  the  lights  of  which  glided  the 
5 


58  Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War. 

silhouetted  figures  of  men,  horses,  and  wagons.  "We  dismount- 
ed at  the  house  of  a  physician,  who  lived  at  the  end  of  the 
principal  street,  not  far  from  the  house  in  which  the  King  had 
taken  up  his  quarters,  and  in  which  those  who  had  been  left 
behind  in  the  morning  in  Grand  Pre  had  also  meanwhile  found 
accommodation.  I  slept  here  in  an  almost  empty  back  room  on 
the  ground  floor,  on  a  straw  mattress,  under  a  blanket  fetched 
from  the  to^vn  hospital  by  one  of  our  soldiers  somewhere  about 
ten  o'clock.  But  the  sleep  of  the  righteous  was  none  the  worse 
on  that  account. 

Wednesday,  August  31. — In  the  morning,  between  nine  and 
ten  o'clock  the  King  and  Chancellor  drove  out  to  inspect  the 
battle-field  of  the  preceeding  day.  I  was  again  to  accompany 
the  Minister.  At  first  we  took  the  same  road  as  the  day  be- 
fore, past  Bar  de  Busancy  and  Sommauthe,  and  l^etween  these 
two  villages  we  passed  some  squadrons  of  Bavarian  Uhlans, 
who  were  resting,  and  who  greeted  the  King  wdth  loud 
"Hurrahs."  It  seemed  to  me  as  if  their  lances  were  shorter 
than  the  others.  Behind  Sommauthe,  Avhich  was  full  of  the 
wounded,  we  drove  through  the  beautiful  wood  between  it  and 
Beaumont,  and  it  was  after  eleven  when  we  reached  the  latter. 
King  William  and  our  Chancellor  here  took  horse  and  galloped 
across  the  fields  to  the  right.  I  took  the  same  direction  on 
foot.  The  carriages  went  on  to  the  town,  where  they  were  to 
wait  for  us. 

Before  I  started,  indeed,  as  soon  as  I  was  alon'e,  as  on  the 
day  before,  I  carefully  noted  the  commissions  which  I  had  re- 
ceived on  the  road,  and  any  other  remarks  which  had  fallen 
from  the  Chief  this  morning  were  committed  to  paper  as  accur- 
ately as  was  possible.  The  Chancellor  was  again  unusually 
communicative  and  very  accessible  to  questions.  He  spoke 
rather  as  if  he  had  a  cold.  He  had  had  cramp,  he  said,  in  his 
legs  all  night,  which  often  happened  with  him.  He  was  then 
obliged  to  get  up  and  walk  about  for  a  Avhile  in  his  room  with 
bare  feet,  and  that  usually  gave  him  cold.  So  it  was  this  time. 
"  One  devil  drove  out  the  other ;  the  cramp  went  away,  and 
the  snivelling  came  on."  He  then  said  that  he  wished  me 
again  to  notice  in  the  press  the  horrible  way  in  which  the  war 
is  being  carried  on  by  the  French,  and  their  repeated  violations 
of  the  Geneva  Convention,  "  which  indeed  is  good  for  nothing," 
said  he,  *'  and  cannot  be  carried  out  in  practice,"  and  of  their 
unjustifiable  firing  at  those  bearing  white  flags  of  truce,  with 


Von  der  Goltz.  59 

their  trumpeters.  "  They  have  allowed  German  prisoners  in 
Metz  to  be  ill-treated  by  the  mob,"  he  continued,  "  gi^'ing  them 
nothing  to  eat  and  shutting  them  up  in  cellars.  But  it  is  not 
very  much  to  be  wondered  at.  They  have  barbarians  for  com- 
rades, and  from  their  wars  in  Algiers,  China,  Cochin  China,  and 
Mexico,  they  have  become  barbarians  themselves." 

Then  he  related  how  the  Red-breeches  had  yesterday  made 
no  jreat  stand,  and  shown  very  Uttle  foresight.  "  At  Beau- 
mont," he  said,  "  they  were  attacked  in  their  camp  on  a  clear 
morning  by  a  surprise  party  of  heavy  artillery.  We  shall  see 
to-day  where  their  horses  are  lying,  shot  at  the  picket  posts, 
with  many  dead  soldiers  lying  in  their  shirt-sleeves,  chests 
rifled,  bowls  full  of  potatoes,  pots  with  meat  half-cooked  in 
them  and  such  like." 

While  driving  through  the  wood — perhaps  the  remark  was 
suggested  by  our  having  met  before  we  came  to  it  the  King's 
suite,  to  which,  by  the  way,  Counts  Hatzfeld  and  Bismarck- 
Bohlen  had  attached  themselves — he  spoke  of  Borck,  the 
Keeper  of  the  King's  Pri^"y  Purse,  and  from  him  passed  to 
Count  BernstorS",  who  was  then  our  ambassador  in  Loudon, 
and  who  had  (while  he  was  in  office)  "  kept  him  for  a  long  time 
from  entering  on  his  diplomatic  duties  while  he  was  laboriously 
weigliing  and  considering  whether  Landon  or  Paris  was  the 
better  embas.sy  to  appoint  him  to."  I  ventured  to  ask  what 
sort  of  a  man  von  der  Goltz,  of  whom  one  hears  such  different 
opinions,  liad  been — whether  he  was  really  as  clever  and  as 
con.siderable  a  man  as  people  say.  "Clever!  Yes,  in  a  cer 
tain  sense,  a  rapid  worker,  well  informed,  but  changeable  in  his 
judgment  of  men  and  things :  to-day  for  this  man,  or  these 
plans  ;  to-morrow  for  another  man  and  quite  opposite  arrange- 
ments. Then  he  was  always  in  love  with  the  Queens  to  whose 
courts  he  was  accredited :  first,  with  Amalia  of  Greece,  then 
%\'ith  Eugenie.  He  seemed  to  think  that  what  I  had  had  the 
good  fortune  to  do,  he  with  his  larger  intellect  might  have  done 
stQl  better.  Therefore  he  was  continually  intriguing  against 
me,  although  we  ha«l  been  acquaintances  when  young.  He 
wrote  letters  to  the  King  in  which  he  complained  of  me,  and 
warned  him  against  me.  This  did  him  no  good,  for  the  King 
gave  me  the  letters,  and  I  answered  them.  But  in  this  respect 
he  was  unchangeable,  and  continued  writing  letters,  unexhaust- 
ed and  indefatigable.  For  the  rest,  he  was  not  much  liked  by 
his  subordinates.     In  fact  they  hated  him.     I  remember,  when 


60  Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War. 

I  went,  in  1862,  to  Paris,  and  called  upon  him,  he  had  just 
gone  to  take  a  nap.  I  wished  to  leave  him  undisturbed,  but 
the  secretaries  were  obviously  delighted  that  he  would  have  to 
get  up,  and  one  of  them  went  oif  at  once  to  announce  me  to 
him  so  as  to  cause  him  annoyance.  He  might  so  easily  have 
gained  the  respect  and  attachment  of  the  people  about  him. 
Any  man  can  do  so  as  ambassador.  It  was  always  a  great  object 
with  me.  But  as  Minister  there  is  no  time  for  that ;  there  are 
so  many  other  things  to  do  and  to  think  of,  that  I  am  obliged 
to  manage  at  present  in  a  more  military  fashion." 

From  these  characteristic  traits  we  see  that  von  der  Goltz 
was  a  kind  of  intellectual  kinsman  and  forerunner  of  Arnim. 

The  Minister  spoke,  lastly,  of  RadoAvitz,  and  said,  amongst 
other  things  :  "  They  ought  to  have  placed  their  army  sooner  in 
position  before  Olmutz,  and  it  is  his  blame  that  this  was  not 
done."  The  very  interesting  and  characteristic  remarks  with 
which  he  supported  this  assertion  must,  unhappily,  for  the 
present,  be  suppressed,  like  some  others  made  afterwards  by  the 
Chancellor. 

The  King  and  the  Chancellor  had  ridden  to  the  place  where 
the  "  surprise  patrols  of  heavy  artillery  "  had  done  their  work, 
and  as  soon  as  I  had  finished  my  notes,  I  followed  them  there. 
The  part  of  the  field  referred  to  lay  to  the  right  of  the  road  which 
brought  us  here,  and  about  eight  or  nine  hundred  paces  from  it. 
Before  it,  near  the  wood  at  the  bottom  of  the  valley,  were  some 
fields  surrounded  with  hedges,  in  which  lay  about  a  dozen 
dead  German  soldiers,  Thuringians  of  the  31st  Regiment.  One 
of  them  was  lying  on  the  hedge,  shot  through  the  head.  He 
was  caught  in  the  thornbush  just  as  he  was  getting  over  it. 
The  encampment  itself  looked  horrible,  all  blue  and  red,  with 
dead  Frenchmen,  some  of  whom  had  been  blown  to  pieces  by 
the  bursting  shells  of  the  surprise  party  belonging  to  the  Fourth 
Corps — in  a  manner  quite  impossible  to  describe  Blackened 
with  powder,  stiff  in  their  blood,  they  lay,  some  on  their  backs, 
others  on  their  faces — many  with  staring  eyes  like  wax  figures. 
One  shot  had  scattered  about  five  in  one  place — like  so  many 
ninepins;  three  of  them  had  their  heads  quite  or  half  shot 
away,  some  had  their  bodies  ripped  up,  whilst  one  whose  face 
had  been  covered  with  a  cloth  seemed  to  have  been  even  more 
frightfully  mangled.  Further  on  lay  a  piece  of  a  skull  like  a 
dish  with  the  brains  on  it  like  a  cake.  Caps,  shakocs,  knap- 
sacks, jackets,  papers,  shoes,  clothes  and  blacking-brushes,  were 


After  the  Battle.  Gl 

strewTi  about.  Officers'  chests  open,  horses  shot  at  the  picket 
post,  pots  with  peeled  potatoes,  or  dishes  with  bits  of  meat 
which  the  wind  had  salted  with  sand,  at  the  extinguished 
cooking-fires — all  showed  how  unhoped  for  had  been  success  to 
us,  how  unexpected  their  loss  to  them.  A  bronze  gun  even  had 
been  left  where  it  stood.  I  took  a  brass  medal  from  one  of  the 
dead,  which  he  wore  next  his  bare  breast  on  a  bit  of  elastic.  A 
saint  was  represented  on  it  with  a  cross  in  his  hand,  and  below 
it  the  episcopal  insignia — the  mitre  and  crosier,  over  which 
were  the  words  and  letters,  "  Crux  S.  P.  Bened"  At  the  bac-k 
in  a  circle  of  dots  was  a  figure  resembling  one  on  our  Landwehr 
crosses,  covered  with  several  letters,  perhaps  the  iaitials  of  the 
words  of  a  prayer  or  some  pious  charm.  Also  an  amulet,  seemingly 
of  ecclesiastical  origin,  given  no  doubt  to  the  poor  fellow  by  his 
mother  or  by  his  pastor,  but  which  had  not  made  him  Ijullet 
proof.  Sutlers  and  soldiers  went  poking  about.  "  Are  you  a 
doctor  1"  they  called  to  me.  "  Yes,  but  not  a  physician ;  what  do 
you  want  1"  "  There  is  a  man  here  still  alive."  This  was  true, 
and  he  was  removed  on  a  hand-barrow  covered  "w-ith  linen.  A 
little  further  on,  in  front  of  me,  at  a  field  path  which  ran  into 
the  main  road,  lay  a  man  stretched  on  lus  back,  whose  eyes 
turned  as  I  approached,  and  who  stUl  breathed,  although  he 
had  been  hit  in  the  forehead  by  a  German  rifle  bullet.  In  a 
space  of  five  hundred  paces  square  there  must  have  been  a  hun- 
dred and  fifty  dead  bodies,  but  not  more  than  ten  or  twelve  of 
them  were  ours. 

I  had  once  more  had  enough  of  such  sights,  and  hastened 
towards  Beaximont,  to  reach  our  carriage.  On  the  way,  just 
before  the  first  houses  in  the  town,  I  .saw  a  niunber  of  French 
prisoners  in  a  redstone  quarry  to  the  right  of  the  road.  "  About 
seven  hundred,"  said  the  lieutenant,  who  with  a  detachment 
was  guarding  them,  and  who  gave  me  some  muddy  Bavarian 
beer  out  of  a  cask,  for  which  I  showed  my  gratitude  by  giving 
him  a  pull  at  my  flask  of  cognac.  Further  on  along  the  road 
was  a  young  wounded  ofiicer  in  a  carriage,  shaking  hands  with 
the  men  of  his  company.  In  the  market-place  and  round 
the  principal  church  of  the  town,  which  stood  on  a  small 
patch  of  elevated  ground,  there  were  more  captured  Eed- 
breeches,  and  amongst  them  some  of  high  rank.  I  asked  a 
Saxon  rifleman  where  the  King's  carriages  were.  "Gone 
already — a  quarter  of  an  hour  ago — that  way."  So  I  was 
too  late.     Alas !     I  hurried  in  the  direction  indicated,  in  the 


62  Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War. 

piping  heat,  along  the  poplar-bordered  road,  uphill  towards  the 
town  which  was  in  flames  last  night,  and  asked  the  soldiers 
there.  "They  are  just  gone  through."  At  last  at  the  edge  of 
the  wood,  behind  the  last  house,  where  lay  a  great  number  of 
dead  Bavarians  as  well  as  of  Frenchmen  on  both  sides  of  the 
ditcher  in  the  roadside,  I  saw  the  carriage  of  the  Chief  stop. 
He  was  evidently  pleased  that  I  had  returned.  "  Ah  !  there  he 
is,"  he  said  ;  "  I  Avanted  to  have  sent  back  for  you  before — I 
would  if  it  had  been  anyone  else.  But  I  thought  to  myself. 
The  doctor  will  take  no  harm.  He  will  stay  all  night  by  a 
watch-fire  if  necessary,  and  can  soon  ask  his  way  back  to  us." 

He  then  told  me  what  he  had  seen  and  experienced  since  I 
left  him.  He  also  had  seen  the  prisoners  in  the  quarry,  and 
among  them  a  priest,  who  was  said  to  have  fired  on  our  peo- 
ple. "  When  I  charged  him  with  it  he  denied  it,  '  Take 
care,'  said  I  to  him,  '  for  if  it  is  proved  against  you,  you  will 
most  certainly  be  hanged.'  I  allowed  him  in  the  meantime  to 
take  off  his  priest's  gown." 

"Near  the  church,"  the  Chief  continued,  "the  King  noticed 
a  soldier  who  was  wounded.  Although  the  man  looked  some- 
what dirty  from  his  work  of  the  day  before,  the  King  held  out 
his  hand,  to  the  great  surprise,  no  doubt,  of  the  French  officer 
who  was  standing  by,  and  asked  him  what  was  his  trade.  He 
was  a  doctor  of  philosophy;  '  Well,  you  must  have  learned  to 
bear  your  wounds  philosophically,'  said  the  King.  'Yes,' 
answered  the  soldier,  '  that  I  had  already  made  up  my  mind 
to.'" 

On  the  road,  near  a  second  village  we  overtook  some  Bavar- 
ian stragglers,  common  soldiers,  who  were  dragging  themselves 
slowly  along  in  the  burning  sun.  "  Halloa,  fellow-country- 
men !"  cried  the  Chancellor  to  one,  "will  you  have  a  drop  of 
cognac?"  Naturally  he  would,  and  another  with  his  longing 
eyes  looked  like  wanting  it,  and  then  a  third  and  so  they  and 
some  more  each  had  his  pull  at  the  Minister's  flask  and  then  at 
mine,  after  which  each  of  them  got  a  genuine  cigar. 

A  niiic  further  on,  at  a  village  the  name  of  which  my  map 
did  not  give,  but  which  sounded  something  like  Crehanges,  the 
King  hud  arranged  a  breakfast,  to  which  Count  von  Bismarck 
was  also  invited  ;  and  there  were  all  the  princes  of  the  second 
grade  and  gentlemen  of  the  "suite  of  the  Crown  Prince.  Mean- 
time I  made  my  pencil  notes  on  a  stone  by  the  roadside,  and 
then  went  to  assist  the  Dutch,  who  had  set  up  their  ambulance 


The  Duke  of  Augastenburg.  63 

close  by  in  a  large  green  tent,  where  they  brought  the  wounded 
and  nursed  them.  When  the  Minister  came  back,  ho  asked 
me  what  I  had  been  doing.  I  told  him.  "  I  shoiild  have  liked 
to  have  gone  too,"  he  said,  drawing  a  deep  Ijreath. 

On  the  road  afterwards,  the  conversation  wandered  for  :i 
while  into  high  regions,  and  the  Chief  discussed  good-naturedly 
and  fully  all  the  questions  suggested  by  my  curiosity.  1  regret, 
that,  for  various  reasons,  I  must  keep  these  utterances  to  ray- 
self,  the  more  so  as  they  were  as  wise  as  they  were  characteris- 
tic, and  as  they  were  full  of  geni^fi  humor.  At  last  we  came 
down  from  the  sphere  of  the  gods  above  the  clouds  back  to 
men  ;  out  of  the  region  of  the  supernatural,  or,  if  ray  reader 
likes  it  better,  the  extra-natxiral,  back  to  the  natural.  There 
we  stumbled  upon  the  Duke  of  Augustenburg  in  his  Bavarian 
uniform.  "  He  might  have  done  better,"  said  he — I  mean  the 
Minister — continuing,  "  I  wanted  originally  no  more  from  him 
than  what  the  minor  princes  had  conceded  in  1 866.  But  he  would 
not  yield  (Thank  goodness,  thought  I  to  myself,  and  thanks  to 
the  wisdom  of  Samwer  the  advocate  !).  I  remember  a  conver- 
sation which  I  had  with  him  in  1864 — he  was  with  us  in  the  bil- 
liard-room beside  my  study — and  which  lasted  till  late  at  night. 
At  first  I  called  him  '  your  Highness,'  and  was  rather  especial- 
ly polite.  But  when  I  began  to  speak  of  Kiel  harbor,  which 
we  wanted,  and  he  said,  '  that  would  be  about  twenty  square 
miles  of  water,'  which  I  could  not  but  allow ;  and  when  he 
would  also  have  nothing  to  say  to  our  demands  with  regard  to  the 
military, — I  put  on  a  different  face.  I  now  called  him  '  illus- 
trious person,'  and  said  to  him  at  last  quite  calmly — plattdeutsch 
— that  we  were  quite  able  to  Avring  the  neck  of  the  chicken  we 
had  ourselves  hatched." 

After  an  unusually  long  drive  over  hill  and  dale,  we  arrived 
about  seven  in  the  evening  at  to-day's  destination,  the  town  of 
Vendresse.  On  the  way  we  passed  several  large  villages,  a  few 
mansions,  one  very  old  with  towers  in  the  comers,  like  a  castle, 
by  a  canal  with  old  trees  on  both  sides,  and  latterly  through  a 
district  which  the  Chancellor  said  reminded  him  of  a  Belgian 
landscape.  At  a  window  in  one  of  the  villages  was  Ludwig 
Pietsch  from  Berlin,  who  must  have  been  here  as  war  corres- 
pondent— who  saw  me  and  screamed  do^vn  his  salutations  to 
me.  In  the  next  village,  Chemery,  a  halt  was  made  for  half 
an  hour,  whilst  more  infantry  regiments  defiled  before  the  King 
and  saluted  him  with  the  usual  hurrahs. 


64  Bismarck  in  the  Franco-Gei^nan  War. 

In  Vendresse  the  Chancellor  went  to  the  house  of  Widow 
Baudelot,  where  the  other  gentlemen  of  the  suite  had  already 
settled  themselves.  Keudell  and  Abeken,  who  I  think  had 
ridden  here  from  Busancy,  had  met  with  an  adventure  on  the 
way.  When  they  were  in  the  wood  behind  Sommauthe,  or 
near  Stonn,  suddenly  eight  or  ten  French  soldiers,  with  Chasse- 
pots,  rushed  on  them  out  of  a  thicket,  and  then  disappeared. 
The  Councillors,  thereupon,  as  was  very  natui'al,  had  turned 
round  and  taken  a  less  suspicious  road.  It  was  not  impossible 
that  each  party  wished  to  give  the  other  a  wide  berth.  But 
Saint  Blanquart,  who  had  travelled  the  same  road,  ■\\dth  Bolsing 
and  Willisch,  and  seen  the  same  suspicious  Red-breeches,  was 
firmly  convinced  that  he  had  risked  his  life  for  the  Fatherland. 
Lastly,  Hatzfeld  and  Bismarck-Bohlen  could  boast  of  a  pretty 
little  heroic  deed,  for  at  that  place,  if  I  remember  right,  where 
the  Chancellor  had  breakfasted  with  the  Princes,  they  had  dis- 
covered a  fugitive  Red-breeches  hiding  in  a  vineyard,  had  start- 
ed him  out  of  it,  and  had  either  themselves  made  him  prisoner 
or  got  some  one  else  to  catch  him. 

In  Yendresse  I  saw  Wiirtemberg  soldiers  for  the  first  time. 
They  were  mostly  fine  strong  fellows.  Their  uniform,  dark 
blue,  -with  two  rows  of  white  buttons  and  black  straps,  reminded 
me  of  the  Danish  soldiery. 


On  the  Road  to  Sedan.  65 


CHAPTER  V. 


THE  DAY  OF  SEDAN. — BISMARCK   AND  NAPOLEON  AT  DONCHERY. 


On  the  1st  September,  Moltke's  chase  after  the  French  in  the 
district  of  the  Meuse,  according  to  all  that  we  hoard,  was  evi- 
dently drawing  to  an  end,  and  it  was  permitted  tiie  to  join  in 
it  the  very  next  day.  Having  risen  very  early  to  get  forward 
in  my  journal — that  book  which  was  waiting  for  so  many  in- 
teresting entries — I  left  the  house  where  I  had  been  quartered 
for  that  of  the  Widow  Baudelot,  and  just  as  I  was  entering  it 
a  large  squadron  of  cavalry,  consisting  of  five  Prussian  hussar 
regiments,  green,  bro"svn,  black,  and  red  (Bliichers),  passed  by 
the  railing  of  the  little  garden  before  the  Chiefs  A\T.ndow.  He, 
we  were  told,  was  going  to  drive  with  the  King,  in  about  an 
hour,  to  a  commanding  point  of  \'iew  near  Sedan,  to  witness 
the  catastrophe  which  was  now  confidently  expected.  When 
the  carriage  came,  and  the  Chancellor  appeared,  he  looked 
round,  and  his  glance  fell  upon  me.  "  Can  you  decipher.  Doc- 
tor 1"  "  Yes,"  I  replied,  and  he  rejoined,  "  Then  get  a  cipher, 
and  come  with  us."  I  did  not  need  to  be  told  tAvice,  and  soon 
took  my  seat  in  the  carriage,  in  which  Count  Bismarck-Bohlen 
had  a  place  at  the  Minister's  side,  this  morning. 

A  few  hundred  paces  on  we  stopped  in  front  of  the  house 
where  Verdy  was  quartered,  behind  the  can-iages  of  the  King, 
who  was  not  quite  ready.  In  this  interval  Abeken  came  to  us, 
to  receive  his  orders  respecting  some  papers  he  brought  with 
him.  The  chief  explained  his  views  precisely,  and  Abeken,  as 
his  habit  is,  insisted  a  little  on  a  point  he  wanted  made  clear. 
Just  at  that  moment  Prince  Karl,  with  his  negro  in  Oriental 
costume,  passed  by.  Now  the  old  gentleman,  who  on  such  oc- 
casions had  generally  ear  and  thought  for  nothing  but  the 
Chief's  words,  had  the  misfortune  to  be  over-much  interested 
in  everything  concerning  the  Court,  which  this  time  brought 


06  Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War. 

him  into  trouble.  The  appearance  of  the  Prince  was  evidently 
more  engrossing  than  the  words  of  the  Minister,  who  must  have 
noticed  it.  On  asking  Abeken  what  he  had  just  been  saying, 
he  got  a  rather  mooning  ansAver.  He  had  a  rather  sharp  re- 
buke. "Listen  to  what  I  say,  Mr.  Pri\y  Councillor,  and  in 
God's  name  let  princes  be  princes.  We  are  talking  business 
here."  Aftenvards  he  said  to  us,  "  The  old  gentleman  is  quite 
carried  away  if  he  sees  anything  belonging  to  the  Court."  Then, 
as  if  apologizing  for  him,  "  But  after  all  I  could  not  do  without 
him." 

When  the  King  appeared,  preceded  by  his  bright  uniformed 
life-guards,  we  folloAved  him,  and  so  passed  once  more  the  to^^iis 
of  Chemery  and  Chehery,  which  we  saw  yesterday,  and  then  by 
a  third  village,  which  lies  to  the  left  of  the  road  in  a  hollow, 
at  the  foot  of  a  bare  hill,  halting  in  a  stubble-field  on  the  right 
hand  of  the  road.  Here  the  King,  with  his  retinue  of  princes, 
generals,  and  courtiers,  mounted  their  horses,  our  Chief  doing 
the  same,  and  all  hastened  towards  the  flat  top  of  the  rising 
ground  before  us.  The  expected  battle  was  already  going  on,  as 
the  distant  thunder  of  the  guns  informed  us.  Bright  sunshine 
from  a  cloudless  sky  lighted  the  scene. 

After  a  time  I  followed  the  riders,  leaving  the  carriage  under 
the  care  of  Engel.  I  found  the  party  in  a  stubble  field  at  the 
top  of  the  hill,  where  there  was  a  view  of  the  country  far  and 
near.  Before  us  it  dropped  into  a  broad,  deep  green  valley,  on 
the  hills  enclosing  which  a  wood  was  here  and  there  to  be  seeh, 
and  through  whose  meadows  the  blue  waters  of  the  Meuse 
wound  along  to  a  middle-sized  town,  the  fortress  of  Sedan.  On 
the  rocky  hill  on  our  side,  about  a  rifle  shot  ofi",  began  wood, 
and  to  the  left  there  was  some  brushwood.  The  foreground 
below  our  feet  was  formed  by  a  slanting  descent,  over  which 
we  looked  down  the  valley.  Here  on  our  right  stood  Bavarian 
batteries,  which  kept  up  a  A'igorous  fire  at  and  over  the  town, 
and  behind  were  dark  columns,  first  infantry,  then  cavalry. 
Still  further  to  the  right  a  column  of  black  smoke  curled  up  out 
of  a  hollow  near  the  descent  to  the  bottom  of  the  valley.  This 
was,  as  we  heard,  the  burning  village  of  Bazeilles.  Sedan  is, 
in  a  direct  line,  about  a  mile  from  us  ;  the  weather  being  so 
clear,  its  houses  and*  churches  can  be  distinctly  seen.  Above 
the  fortress,  which  joins  the  toAvn  on  the  left,  and  looks  some- 
thing like  a  straggling  suburb,  rises,  not  far  from  the  farther 
bank  of  the  stream,  a  long  chain  of  hilltops,  with  its  middle 


The  Battle  of  Sedan.  67 

clothed  with  a  wood,  which  also  runs  do^vn  into  the  hollow 
which  here  di\ades  the  ridge,  bare  on  the  left,  and  covered  on 
the  right  with  a  few  solitary  trees  and  bushes.  Near  this  gorge 
there  are  some  cottages,  if  I  am  not  ^vrong ;  or  they  may  be 
villas.  To  the  left  of  this  ridge  is  a  plain,  from  which  swells 
up  an  isolated  hill,  with  a  group  of  tall  trees  \jpon  it  with  dark 
tops.  Not  far  from  this,  in  the  river,  are  the  pillars  of  a  bridge 
which  has  been  blown  up.  In  the  farther  distance,  to  the  left 
and  right,  are  three  or  four  villages.  Behind,  towards  the  hor- 
izon, the  picture  before  us  is  closed  in  by  ranges  of  high  hills, 
covered  all  over  with  dark  woods,  seemingly  pine  forests.  These 
are  the  Ardennes  on  the  Belgian  frontier. 

The  main  position  of  the  French  now  appears  to  be  on  the 
hills  immediately  beyond  the  fortress,  and  it  looks  as  if  our 
troops  were  intending  to  surround  them  there.  At  present, 
however  the  advance  of  our  men  is  only  ob\-ious  on  the  right ; 
the  line  of  their  artillery  fire  is  slowly  pushing  nearer  and 
nearer,  with  the  exception  of  the  Bavarian  artillery  below  our 
point  of  view,  which  appear  stationary.  Gradually  clouds  of 
gunpowder  smoke  rise  behind  the  line  of  hills  %vith  the  gorge 
in  the  centre,  and  we  infer  from  this  that  our  masses  enclos- 
ing the  enemy  are  endeavoring  to  continue  farther  the  semi- 
circle they  now  form,  so  as  to  complete  the  circle.  On  the 
left  of  the  picture,  however,  all  is  yet  perfectly  still.  About 
eleven  o'clock  there  rises  from  the  fortress,  which,  by-the-way, 
is  not  firing,  a  black  grey  pillar  of  smoke,  edged  with  yellow.  Be- 
yond it  the  French  are  firing  furiously,  and  above  the  wood  of 
the  gorge,  rise  unceasingly  a  number  of  little  white  clouds  from 
bombs,  whether  German  or  French  we  know  not ;  sometimes 
also  the  crackling  and  snarling  of  a  mitrailleuse. 

On  our  hill  a  brilliant  assemblage  had  gathered  j  the  King, 
Bismarck,  Moltke,  R-oon,  a  crowd  of  princes,  Prince  Karl,  their 
Highnesses  of  Weimar  and  Coburg,  the  Hereditary  Grand 
Duke  of  Mecklenburg,  generals,  aides-de-camp,  marshals  of  the 
household,  Count  Hatzfeld,  who  after  a  time  disappeared, 
KutusofF  the  Russian,  Colonel  Walker  the  English  miKtary 
plenipotentiary,  General  Sheridan  and  his  adjutant,  all  in  uni- 
form, all  with  field-glasses  at  their  eyes.  The  King  stood. 
Others,  among  whom  was  the  Chancellor,  sat  on  a  grassy  ridge 
at  the  edge  of  the  stubble.  I  heard  that  the  King  had  sent 
round  word  that  large  groups  must  not  stand  together,  as  the 
French  in  the  fortress  mi"ht  fire  on  them. 


68  Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War. 

After  eleven  o'clock  our  lifte  of  attack  on  the  right  bank  of 
the  Mense  developed  itself  by  a  further  advance  in  order  to 
surround  the  French  position  in  a  narrower  ring,  and  in  my 
zeal  I  was  explaining  this  perhaps  somewhat  more  loudly  than 
was  necessary  or  befitting  the  place,  to  an  elderly  gentleman  of 
the  Court,  when  the  Chief  hearing  me  with  his  sharp  ears, 
turned  round  and  beckoned  me  to  come  to  him.  "  If  you  are 
developing  your  strategical  ideas,  Doctor,"  said  he,  "  it  would 
be  better  to  do  it  less  audibly,  otherwise  the  King  will  ask, 
Who  is  that?  and  I  muet  then  present  you  to  him."  Soon 
afterwards  he  received  a  number  of  telegrams,  and  came  and 
gave  me  six  of  them  to  decipher,  so  that  the  contemplation  of 
the  spectacle,  for  me  at  least,  came  to  an  end  for  a  time. 

Our  line  of  fire  by  one  o'clock  swept  the  larger  half  of  the 
enemy's  position  on  the  heights  on  the  other  side  of  the  town. 
Clouds  of  smoke  from  the  powder  rose  in  a  wide  curve,  and  the 
little  white  balls  of  smoke  from  the  sharpnels  which  we  knew 
the  look  of  so  well,  kept  rising  and  shattering.  Only  to  the 
left  there  was  still  one  quiet  gap.  The  Chancellor  now  sat  on 
a  chair  and  studied  an  official  document  of  many  sheets.  I 
asked  whether  he  would  like  something  to  eat  or  drink,  as  we  had 
it  ready.  He  declined.  "I  should  like  it,  but  neither  has  the 
King  anything,"  he  answered. 

The  enemy  on  the  other  side  of  the  river  must  now  haA-e 
been  very  near,  for  we  heard  more  frequently  than  before  the 
hateful  sound  of  the  mitrailleuses,  of  which,  by-the-way,  we 
had  been  told  meantime  that  their  bark  was  worse  than  their 
bite.  Between  two  and  three  o'clock  by  my  watch  the  King 
came  close  past  the  place  where  I  was  standing,  and  said  to  the 
people  about  him,  after  looking  for  some  time  through  a  glass 
towards  the  suburb  :  "They  are  pushing  great  masses  forward 
there  to  the  left — that,  I  think,  must  be  an  attempt  to  break 
through."  They  were,  in  fact,  columns  of  infantry  advancing, 
but  soon  going  back,  apparently  because  they  found  that  the 
gap,  though  quiet,  was  not  at  all  open.  Shortly  afterwards  we 
could  see,  through  a  telescope,  French  cavalry  on  the  crest  of 
the  hill  to  the  left  of  the  wood  and  the  gorge  make  repeated 
charges,  which  were  met  by  quick  fire,  after  which  at  a  semi- 
circular sweep  of  the  field  we  could  see,  even  with  the  naked 
eye,  the  ground  sti'ewn  with  white  objects — horses  or  cloaks. 
Soon  after  the  artillery  fire  became  weaker  at  all  points,  and 
the  French  everywhere  fell  back  into  the  town  and  its  imme- 


The  Surrender.  69 

diate  neighborhood.  They  had  been  surrounded,  except  for  a 
small  gap  near  the  Belgian  frontier,  and  for  some  time,  on  the 
left,  there  also,  as  the  Wilrtembergers  had  planted  a  couple  of 
batteries  not  far  from  our  hill,  to  which,  as  we  were  told,  they 
had  now  brought  up  the  Fifth  and  Eleventh  Army  Corps. 
After  half-past  four  all  the  enemy's  guns  were  silent,  and  a 
little  afterwards  ours  also. 

Once  more  the  scene  became  moi;e  lively.  Suddenly  there 
rose,  first  in  one  part  of  the  town,  then  in  another,  great  wliit- 
ish-blue  clouds,  signs  that  the  town  was  burning  in  two 
places.  Bazeilles,  too,  was  still  in  flames,  and  sent  up  from 
just  below  the  horizon  to  the  right  a  column  bf  thick  yellow- 
ish-grey vapor  into  the  clear  evening  sky.  The  burning  light 
of  the  late  afternoon  became  more  and  more  intense,  the  valley 
below  looking  every  moment  brighter  and  more  golden.  Tlie 
hills  of  the  battlefield,  the  gorge  in  its  midst,  the  village,  the 
houses  and  towers  of  the  fortress,  the  suburb  of  Torcy,  the 
ruined  bridge  to  the  left  in  the  distance,  shown  bright  in  the 
evening  glow,  and  their  details  became  clearer  every  minute,  as 
if  one  were  looking  through  stronger  and  stronger  spectacles. 

About  five  o'clock  Genei-al  Hindersiu  talked  with  the  King, 
and  I  thought  I  heard  him  speak  of  the  "  bombardment  of  the 
town"  and  the  "ruins  of  the  houses."  A  quarter  of  an  hour 
afterwards  a  Bavarian  officer  galloped  up  the  hill  to  us :  Gen- 
eral von  Bothmer  wished  to  tell  the  King  that  Genei"al  Mail- 
linger  said  that  he  was  with  his  riflemen  in  Torcy,  that  the 
French  wished  to  capitidate,  and  that  they  werr  ready  to  sur- 
render unconditionally.  The  King  answered,  "  No  one  can  ne- 
gotiate this  affair  but  myself.  Say  to  the  General,  that  a  bearer 
of  a  flag  of  truce  must  come  to  me." 

The  Bavarian  rode  back  again  down  the  valley.  The  King 
talked  it  over  with  Bismarck — then  groups  of  these  two  with 
the  Crown  Prince,  who  had  come  up  some  time  before  from  the 
left,  Moltkcj  and  Boon.  Their  Highnesses  of  Weimar  and  Co 
burg  stood  close  by,  but  a  little  aside.  After  a  time  a  Prus- 
sian adjutant  appeared,  bringing  word  that  our  losses,  so  far  as 
was  yet  known,  were  not  large  ;  moderate  with  the  Guards, 
somewhat  larger  with  the  Saxons,  less  with  the  other  corps 
which  had  taken  part  in  the  battle.  Only  a  few  of  the  French 
had  escaped  by  the  woods  towards  the  Belgian  frontier  and 
were  being  pursued.     All  the  rest  had  been  driven  into  Sedan. 

"  And  the  Emperor  % "  asked  the  King. 


70  Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War, 

"  Nobody  knows,"  answered  tlie  officer. 

About  six  o'clock  another  adjutant  appeared,  and  said  tliat 
the  Emperor  was  in  the  town,  and  would  immediately  send  out 
a  flag  of  truce. 

"This  is  indeed  a  great  success!"  said  the  King,  turning 
round  to  his  retinue.  "  And  I  thank  thee  "  (to  the  Crown 
Prince),  "  that  thou  hast  contributed  to  it." 

With  that  the  King  gave  his  hand  to  his  son,  who  kissed  it ; 
then  to  Moltke,  who  kissed  it  also.  Lastly,  he  gave  his  hand 
to  the  Chancellor,  and  talked  with  him  for  some  time  alone, 
which  seemed  to  me  to  make  some  of  their  Highnesses  uncom- 
fortable. 

About  half-past  six,  a  guard  of  honor  of  cuirassiers  ap- 
peared a  little  way  off,  and  the  French  general,  Reille,  as  the 
bearer  of  Napoleon's  flag  of  truce,  rode  slowly  up  the  hilL 
He  dismounted  about  ten  paces  from  the  King  and  went  up  to 
him,  took  off  his  cap,  and  presented  him  with  a  letter  having  a 
large  red  seal.  The  general  is  an  oldish,  middle-sized,  slight 
man,  in  a  black  overcoat,  open,  with  straps  and  epaulettes, 
black  vest,  red  stockings,  and  polished  riding  boots.  He  wore 
no  sword,  but  carried  a  walking  stick  in  his  hand.  All  stepped 
back  from  the  King,  who  opened  and  read  the  letter,  and  then 
told  the  now  well-known  contents  to  Bismarck,  Moltke,  the 
Crown  Prince,  and  the  other  gentlemen.  Reille  stood  ^  little 
way  apart,  below  him,  at  first  alone,  then  in  conversation  with 
the  Prussian  generals.  The  Crown  Prince  also,  Moltke,  and 
the  Coburg  Highness,  talked  with  him,  whilst  the  King  con-" 
f erred  with  the  Chancellor,  who  then  commissioned  Hatzfeld  to 
sketch  an  answer  to  the  Imperial  letter.  After  some  minutes 
he  brought  it,  and  the  King  wrote  it  out,  sitting  on  one  chair, 
while  the  seat  of  a  second  was  held  up  by  Major  von  Alten, 
who  knelt  before  him  on  one  knee,  with  the  chair  supported  on 
the  other  by  way  of  table.  » 

Shortly  before  seven  o'clock,  the  Frenchman  rode  back  in  the 
twilight  to  Sedan,  accompanied  by  an  officer  and  a  Uhlan  trum- 
peter, with  a  white  flag.  The  town  was  still  blazing  in  three 
places,  and  the  red  lights  flashing  in  the  pillar  of  smoke  pising 
over  Bazeilles  showed  that  the  conflagration  there  was  still  raging. 
But  for  these  signs  the  tragedy  of  Sedan  was  played  out,  and 
the  curtain  of  night  fell  on  the  scene. 

An  after-piece  only  was  left  for  the  next  day.  For  the  pre- 
sent we  went  home.     The  King  went  again  to  Vendresse.    The 


Tlie  After-piece.  71 

Chief,  Count  Bismarck-Bohlen,  and  myself,  drove  to  the  little 
town  of  Donchery,  where  when  we  arrived  it -was  quite  dai'k. 
We  took  up  our  quarters  in  the  house  of  a  Doctor  Jeanjot. 
The  place  was  full  of  Wiirtemberg  soldiers,  encamped  in  the 
market-place.  We  made  this  diversion  to  Donchery,  because 
it  had  been  arranged  that  the  Chancellor  and  Moltke  should 
meet  the  French  plenipotentiaries  this  evening,  with  a  view  to 
settling  the  terms  of  the  capitulation  of  the  four  French  Army 
Corps  shut  up  in  Sedan. 

I  slept  here  in  a  little  alcove  in  a  back  room  on  the  first 
floor,  separated  only  by  the  partition  from  the  Chancellor,  who 
had  taken  possession  of  the  large  front  room.  About  six 
o'clock  in  the  morning  I  was  awakened  by  hasty  steps,  and  I 
heard  Engel  say,  "  Your  Excellency  !  your  Excellency  !  there 
is  a  French  general  down  here  at  the  door  ;  I  don't  undei-stand 
what  he  wants."  The  Minister  seems  at  once  to  have  jumped 
out  of  bed,  and  held  a  short  parley  Avdth  the  Frenchman  out  of 
the  window — it  was  again  General  Reille.  He  then  dressed  as 
quickly  as  possible,  mounted  his  horse — without  touching 
breakfast,  just  as  he  had  an-ived  the  night  before — and  rode  off 
at  full  .speed.  I  went  at  once  to  the  window  of  his  room  to 
see  in  what  direction  he  had  gone,  and  saw  him  trotting  to- 
wards the  market-place.  Everything  was  lying  about  his 
room  in  great  disorder.  On  the  floor  there  lay,  "Tagliche 
Losungen  and  Lehrtexte  der  Briidergemeinde  fiir  ISZO,""^  and 
on  the  night  table  there  was  another  book  of  devotion,  "  Die 
tagliche  Ei-quickung  fiir  glaubige  Christen"  f  ;  books  in  which, 
as  Engel  told  me,  the  Chancellor  was  accustomed  to  read  at 
night. 

I,  too,  now  dressed  quickly,  and  after  I  had  learned  down- 
staii-s  that  the  Count  had  ridden  off"  to  Sedan,  in  order  to  meet 
the  Emperor  Napoleon,  who  had  left  the  fortress,  I  followed 
him  as  quickly  as  possible.  About  800  paces  from  the  bridge 
over  the  Meuse,  at  Donchery,  there  stands  on  the  right  of  tlie 
high  road,  which  is  lined  with  poplars,  a  solitary  house,  which 
was  then  inhabited  by  a  Belgian  weaver.  It  is  a  one-storied 
house,  painted  yellow,  with  four  windows  in  front,  white  shut- 
ters on  the  ground,  floor,  and  on  the  first  floor  white  Venetian 
blinds.       It  is  slated,  like  most   of  the  houses  in  Donchery. 


*  'Daily  Watchwords  and  Texts  of  the  Moravian  Brethren  for  1870.' 
t  '  Daily  Refreshment  for  Believing  Christians.' 


72  Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War. 

Close  beside  it  on  tlie  left  there  was  a  field  of  potatoes 
in  flower,  while  to  the  right  there  were  a  few  bushes  across  the 
path  leading  to  the  house,  which  was  about  fifteen  paces  from 
the  high  road. 

Here  I  saw  that  the  Chancellor  had  already  found  the  Em- 
peror. In  front  of  the  weaver's  little  house,  six  French  officers 
of  superior  rank  were  standing,  of  whom  five  wore  red  caps 
with  gold  lace,  the  sixth  a  black  one.  On  the  high  road  a 
carriage  with  four  seats,  apparently  a  hired  one,  was  waiting. 
Opposite  the  Frenchmen  stood  Bismarck,  his  cousin  Count 
Bohlon,  and  a  little  way  off  Leverstrom  and  two  hussars,  one 
in  brown  and  the  other  in  black  uniform.  About  eight  o'clock 
Moltke  came,  with  some  officers  of  the  general  staff,  but  after 
a  short  time  he  removed  to  a  distance.  Soon  afterwards  a  little 
thick-set  man  came  forward,  behind  the  house,  who  wore  a  red 
cap  with  a  gold  border,  a  black  paletot  lined  with  red,  with  a 
hood,  and  red  trousers.  He  spoke  first  to  the  Frenchmen,  some 
of  whom  were  sitting  on  the  bank  near  the  potatoes.  He  wore 
white  kid  gloves,  and  was  smoking  a  cigarette. 

It  was  the  Emperor.  From  the  short  distance  at  which  I 
stood  I  could  see  his  face  perfectly.  The  look  in  his  light  grey 
eyes  was  somewhat  soft  and  dreamy,  like  that  of  people  who 
have  lived  hard.  He  wore  his  cap  a  little  on  the  right,  to 
which  side  his  head  also  inclined.  His  short  legs  were  out  of 
proportion  to  the  long  upper  body.  His  whole  appearance  was 
a  little  unsoldierlike.  The  man  looked  too  soft,  I  might  say 
too  shabby  for  the  uniform  he  wore  :  he  gave  one  the  impres- 
sion that  he  could  be  occasionally  sentimental — feelings  which 
forced  themselves  upon  one  the  more  on  comparing  this  little 
molluscous  gentleman  with  the  erect  and  lofty  form  of  our 
Chancellor.  Napoleon  looked  unstrung,  but  not  very  much 
broken  down,  and  not  so  old  as  I  had  imagined  him  to  be  :  he 
might  have  been  a  tolerably  preserved  man  of  fifty. 

After  a  while  he  went  up  to  the  Chief  and  spoke  for  about 
three  minutes  with  him,  then  he  again  walked  up  and  down 
alone,  smoking,  with  his  hands  behind  his  back,  through  the 
potato-field  in  flower.  Another  shoi-t  conversation  followed 
between  the  Chancellor  and  the  Emperor,  which  the  Chancellor 
began.  After  it  Napoleon  conversed  with  the  French  officers 
of  the  suite.  About  a  quarter  to  nine  o'clock  Bismarck  and 
his  cousin  went  away  in  the  direction  of  Donchery — whither  I 
followed  them 


The  Terms  of  Surrender.  72- 

The  Minister  repeatedly  spoke  of  the  events  of  this  morning: 
and  of  the  preceding  evening.  I  throw  these  different  state- 
ments  together  in  the  following  paragraphs,  which  give  always 
the  sense,  generally  the  very  words. 

"Moltke  and  I,  after  the  battle  of  the  1st  September,  had 
gone  to  Donchery,  about  three  miles  from  Sedan,  with  a  view 
to  negotiations  with  the  French.  We  passed  the  night  there, 
while  the  King  and  the  head-quarters  returned  to  Vendresse. 
These  negotiations  lasted  till  after  midnight  ■wdthout  coming  to 
any  conclusion.  Besides  Moltke  and  myself  Blumenthal  and 
three  or  four  other  officers  of  the  general  staff  were  present. 
General  Wimpffen  was  the  spokesman  for  the  French.  Moltke's 
terms  were  short :  the  whole  French  army  to  surrender  as  pris- 
oners of  war.  "Wimpffen  found  that  too  hard.  '  The  army,' 
said  he,  'had  merited  something  better  by  the  bravery  with 
which  it  had  fought.  We  ought  to  be  content  to  let  them  go, 
under  the  condition  that  as  long  as  this  war  la.sted  the  army 
should  never  serve  against  us,  and  that  it  should  march  off  to 
a  district  of  France  which  should  be  left  to  our  determination, 
or  to  Algiers.  Moltke  coldly  persisted  in  his  deinand 
Wimpffen  represented  to  him  his  own  unhappy  position  :  that 
he  had  ari'ived  from  Africa  only  two  days  ago  ;  that,  only  to- 
wards the  end  of  the  .battle,  after  MacMahon  had  been  wound- 
ed, had  he  undertaken  the  command  ;  now  he  was  asked  to  put 
his  name  to  such  a  capitulation.  He  would  rather  endeavor 
to  maintain  himself  in  the  fortress,  or  attempt  to  break  through. 
Moltke  regretted  that  he  could  take  no  account  of  the  position 
of  the  general,  which  he  quite  understood.  He  acknowledged 
the  bravery  of  the  French  troops,  but  declared  that  Sedan 
could  not  be  held,  and  that  it  was  quit^  impossible  to  break 
through.  He  was  ready,  he  said,  to  allow  one  of  the  general's 
officers  to  inspect  our  positions,  to  convince  him  of  this. 
Wimpffen  now  thought  that  from  a  political  point  of  view  it 
would  be  wise  for  us  to  grant  them  better  conditions.  We 
must,  he  said,  desire  a  speedy  and  enduring  peace,  and  this  we 
could  have  only  by  showing  magnanimity.  If  we  spared  the 
army,  it  would  bind  the  army  and  the  whole  nation  to  grati- 
tude, and  awaken  friendly  feelings ;  while  an  opposite  course 
would  be  the  beginning  of  endless  wars.  Hereupon  I  put  in  a 
word,  because  this  matter  seemed  to  belong  to  my  province.  I 
said  to  him  that  we  might  build  on  the  gratitude  of  a  prince, 
but  certainly  not  on  the  gi-atitude  of  a  people — least  of  ail  on 
6 


74  Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War. 

the  gratitude  of  the  French.  That  in  France  neither  insti- 
tutions nor  circumstances  were  enduring ;  that  governments 
and  dynasties  were  constantly  changing,  and  the  one  need  not 
'Carry  out  what  the  other  had  bound  itself  to.  That  if  the  Em- 
peror had  been  firm  on  his  throne,  his  gratitude  for  our  grant- 
ing good  conditions  might  be  counted  upon  ;  but,  as  things 
stood,  it  would  be  folly  if  we  did  not  make  full  use  of  our  suc- 
cess. That  the  French  were  a  nation  full  of  en\-y  and  jealousy  ; 
that  they  had  been  much  mortified  with  our  success  at  Konig- 
gratz,  and  could  not  forgive  it,  though  it  in  no  "wdse  damaged 
them.  How,  then,  should  any  magnanimity  on  our  side  move . 
them  not  to  bear  us  a  grudge  for  Sedan  1  This  Wimpflen  would 
not  admit.  *  France,'  he  said,  'had  much  changed  lately ;  it 
had  learned  under  the  Empire  to  think  more  of  tlie  interests 
of  peace  than  of  the  glory  of  war.  France  was  ready  to  proclaim 
the  fraternity  of  nations  ;'  and  more  of  the  same  kind.  It  was 
not  difficult  to  prove  the  contrary  of  all.  he  said,  and  that  his 
request,  if  granted,  would  be  likelier  to  lead  to  the  prolongation 
than  to  the  conclusion  of  the  war.  I  ended  by  saying  that  we 
must  stand  to  our  conditions. 

"Thereupon  Castelnau  became  the  spokesman,  and,  as  the 
Emperor's  personal  commissioner,  declared  that  on  the  previous 
day  he  had  surrendered  his  sword  to  the  King  only  in  the  hope 
of  an  honorable  capitulation.  I  asked,  '  Whose  sword  was  that 
— the  sword  of  France  or  the  sword  of  the  Emperor  V  He  re- 
plied, 'The  Emperor's  only.'  'Well,  there  is  no  use  talking 
about  any  other  conditions,'  said  Moltke  sharply,  while  a  look 
of  contentment  and  gratification  passed  over  his  face.  'Then, 
in  the  morning  we  shall  begin  the  battle  again,'  said 
"Wimpffen.  '  I  shall  recommence  the  fire  about  four  o'clock,' 
replied  Moltke ;  and  the  Frenchmen  wanted  to  go  at  once.  I 
l^egged  them,  however,  to  remain  and  once  more  to  consider 
-the  case ;  and  at  last  it  was  decided  that  they  should  ask  for  a 
Iprolongation  of  the  armistice  in  order  that  they  might  consult 
iheir  people  in  Sedan  as  to  our  demands.  Moltke  at  first  would 
mot  grant  this,  but  gave  way  at  last,  when  I  showed  him  that 
it  could  do  no  harm. 

"  Early  on  the  2nd,  about  six  o'clock  in  the  morning,  Gener- 
al Reille  appeared  in  front  of  my  house  at  Donchery  to  tell  me 
that  the  Emperor  wished  to  speak  with  me.  I  went  with  him 
directly,  and  got  on  my  horse,  all  dusty  and  dirty  as  I  was,  in 
an  old  cap  and  my  great  waterproof  boots,  to  ride  to  Sedan, 


The  Unhalloiced  War.  75 

where  I  supposed  him  still  to  be.  But  I  met  him  on  the  high 
road  near  FresnoLs,  a  mUe  and  three-quarters  from  Donchery. 
He  sat  with  three  officers  in  a  two-horse  carriage,  and  three 
others  were  on  horseback  beside  him.  I  only  knew  Reille, 
Castelnau,  Moscowa,  and  Yaubert.  I  had  my  revolver  in  my 
belt,  and  his  eye  rested  upon  it  for  a  moment.*  I  gave  the 
military  salute.  He  took  his  cap  off  and  the  officers  did  the 
same  ;  whereupon  I  took  mine  off,  although  it  is  contrary  to 
rule.  He  said  '  Couvrez-vous  done'  I  behaved  to  him  just  as 
if  in  Saint-Cloud,  and  asked  his  commands.  He  inquired 
whether  he  could  speak  to  the  King.  I  said  that  would  be  im- 
possible, as  the  King  was  quartered  nine  miles  away.  I  did 
not  wish  them  to  come  together  tUl  we  had  settled  the  matter 
of  capitulation.  Then  he  inquired  where  he  himself  could  stay, 
which  signified  that  he  could  not  go  back  to  Sedan,  as  he  had 
met  with  unpleasantness  there,  or  feared  to  do  so.  The 
town  was  full  of  drunken  soldiers,  who  were  very  burdensome 
to  the  inhabitants.  I  offered  him  my  quarters  in  Donchery, 
which  I  would  immediately  vacate.  He  accepted  this.  But 
he  stopped  at  a  place  a  couple  of  hundred  paces  from  the  vil- 
lage and  asked  whether  he  could  not  remain  in  a  house  which 
was  there.  I  sent  my  cousin,  who  had  ridden  out 'as  my  adju- 
tant, to  look  at  it.  When  he  returned,  he  reported  it  to  be  a 
miserable  place.  The  Emperor  said  that  did  not  matter.  He 
went  across  to  the  house  and  came  back  again,  apparently  not 
being  able  to  find  the  stairs,  which  were  at  the  back.  I  went 
up  with  him  to  the  first  floor,  where  we  entered  a  little  room 
with  one  window.  It  was  the  best  in  the  house,  but  had  only 
one  deal  table  and  two  rush-bottomed  chairs. 

"  Here  I  had  a  conversation  with  him  which  lasted  nearly 
three-quarters  of  an  hour.  He  complained  at  first  of  this  un- 
hallowed war,  which  he  had  not  desired.  He  had  been  driven 
into  it  by  the  pressure  of  public  opinion.  I  rejoined  that 
neither  had  any  one  with  us  wished  for  war — the  King  least  of 
all.  We  had  looked  upon  the  Spanish  question  as  Spanish,  and 
not  German  ;  and  we  had  expected,  from  his  friendly  relations 
\vith  the  princely  house  of  HohenzoUem  that  the  hereditary 
Prince  would  easily  have  come  to  an  understanding  with  him. 
Then  he  turned  to  speak  of  the  present  situation.     As  to  that, 

*  I  must  here  omit  an  expression  of  the  Chancellor's,  very  characteristic 
both  of  himself  and  of  the  Emperor. 


76  Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War. 

he  ^vished  above  all  for  a  more  favorable  capitulation.  I  ex- 
plained that  I  could  not  enter  upon  a  discussion  on  that  point, 
as  it  was  a  purely  military  question,  on  which  Moltke  must  de- 
cide. Then  we  left  the  subject,  to  speak  of  a  possible  peace. 
He  answered,  he  was  a  prisoner^  and  therefore  not  in  a  position 
to  decide  ;  and  when  I  asked  him  whom  he  considered  competent 
for  that,  he  referred  me  to  the  Government  in  Paris.  I  re- 
marked to  him,  that  in  that  case,  things  were  just  where  they 
were  yesterday,  and  that  we  must  stand  by  our  former  demands 
with  regard  to  the  army  of  Sedan,  so  as  to  have  some  pledge 
that  the  results  of  the  battle  of  yesterday  should  not  be  lost  to 
us.  Moltke,  who  had  been  summoned  by  me,  had  now  arrived. 
He  was  of  the  same  opinion,  and  went  to  the  King  to  tell  him 
so. 

"Outside,  in  front  of  the  house,  the  Emperor  praised  our 
army  and  its  generalship  ;  and  when  I  allowed  to  him  that  the 
French  had  also  fought  well,  he  came  back  to  the  conditions  of 
the  capitulation,  and  asked  whether  it  was  not  possible  for  us 
to  allow  the  corps  shut  up  in  Sedan  to  cross  the  Belgian  fron- 
tier, and  there  to  lay  down  their  arms  and  be  'interned.'  I 
tried  again  to  make  him  understand  that  this  was  a  military 
question,  not  for  me  to  decide  without  an  understanding  with 
Moltke.  And  as  he  had  explained,  that  as  a  prisoner  he  could 
not  take  upon  himself  the  Imperial  powers  of  the  Government, 
the  negotiations  on  these  questions  could  only  be  conducted 
with  the  general  in  command  at  Sedan. 

"  Meantime,  efforts  had  been  made  to  find  him  better  accom- 
modation ;  and  the  officers  of  the  general  staff  had  discovered 
that  the  Chateau  of  Bellevue,  near  Fresnois,  where  I  had  first 
met  him,  was  suitable  for  his  reception,  and  was  not  yet  filled 
with  the  wounded.  I  told  him  so  and  advised  him  to  settle 
himself  there,  as  the  little  weaver's  house  was  not  comfortable, 
and  he  perhaps  needed  rest.  We  would  inform  the  King  that 
he  was  there.  He  agreed  to  this,  and  I  rode  back  to  Douchery 
to  dress  myself.  Then  I  conducted  him  with  a  guard  of  honour, 
consisting  of  a  squadron  of  the  first  Cuirassier  regiment  to  Belle- 
vue. At  the  conferences  which  now  began,  the  Emperor 
wished  to  have  the  King  present — from  whom  he  expected 
softness  and  good-heartedness — but  he  also  wanted  me  to  take 
part,  '*' 

"I  on  the  contrary  was  determined  that  the  military  men, 
who  can  be  harder,  should  have  the  whole  affair  to  settle.     So 


A  Chance  of  another  Battle.  *I*7 

I  whispered  to  an  officer  as  he  went  upstairs  that  he  was  to 
call  me  out  in  about  five  minutes — the  King  wanted  to  speak 
with  me — and  he  did  so.  With  regard  to  the  King,  the  Em- 
peror was  told  that  he  could  not  see  him  until  after  the  capitu- 
lation was  settled.  The  arrangement  between  Moltke  and 
Wimpffen  was  thus  made  much  as  we  had  wished  it  to  be  the 
evening  before.  Then  the  two  sovereigns  came  together.  When 
the  Emperor  came  out  after  the  interview,  his  eyes  were  full 
of  tears.  Towards  me  he  was  quieter,  but  friendly  throughout." 
We  had  heard  nothing  aVjout  all  these  occurrences  preAdous 
to  the  forenoon  of  September  2,  and  from  the  moment  when 
the  Chief  in  his  best  uniform  with  his  cuirassier's  helmet  on  his 
head,  rode  away  again  from  Donchery,  till  quite  late  at  night, 
only  indefinite  reports  reached  us.  About  half-past  nine  some 
AViirtemburg  artillery  trotted  past  our  house,  and  it  was  said 
that  the  French  would  renew  the  fight,  that  Moltke  had  grant- 
ed them  a  respite  till  eleven  o'clock  for  reflection,  and  that  the 
bombardment  would  then  immediately  commence  from  five 
hundred  guns.  In  order  to  see  this  I  went  ^\-ith  WiUisch  over 
the  Meuse  Bridge,  where,  at  the  barracks,  there  were  many 
French  prisoners  standing,  to  the  high  road,  pa.ssing  the  little 
weaver's  house,  now  become  historical,  and  up  to  the  top  of 
the  range  of  hills  overlooking  it,  whence  we  could  overlook 
Donchery  with  its  gi'ey  slate  roofs,  and  the  whole  neighbor- 
hood. Everywhere  on  the  roads  and  in  the  fields  clouds  of 
dust  rose  under  the  horses'  hoofs  of  the  passing  squadrons  of 
cavalry,  and  the  weapons  of  columns  of  infantry  flashed  in  the 
sun.  Sideways  from  Donchery,  near  the  bridge  Avhich  had  been 
bloAvn  up,  we  saw  a  camp.  The  highway  at  our  feet  was  taken 
up  with  a  long  row  of  wagons  Tsath  baggage  and  forage.  After 
eleven  o'clock,  when  we  saw  there  was  no  firing,  we  came  down 
the  hill  again.  Here  we  met  the  lieutenant  of  police,  vou 
Czemicki,  who  meant  to  drive  in  a  little  conveyance  into 
Sedan,  and  who  iuA-ited  us  to  go  with  him.  We  had  gone  as 
far  as  near  Fresnois  when  we — it  was  about  one  o'clock — met 
the  King  with  a  great  retinue,  amongst  whom  was  the  Chancel- 
lor. Expecting  that  the  Chief  might  wish  to  go  home  we 
got  out  and  went  back.  The  cavalcade,  which  included  Hatz- 
feld  and  Abeken,  went  on  through  Donchery,  with  the  inten- 
tion of  riding  round  the  whole  field  of  battle.  Not  knowing, 
however,  how  long  the  Minister  might  be  away,  we  remained 
where  we  were. 


78  Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War. 

About  half-past  one  some  thousands  of  prisoners  marched 
through  the  town  on  their  way  to  Germany ;  partly  on  foot, 
partly  in  wagons — a  general  on  horseback,  and  sixty  or  seventy 
officers  of  different  grades.  There  were  cuirassiers  with  white 
helmets,  blue  hussars  with  white  lace,  and  infantry  of  the 
22nd,  52nd,  and  58th  regiments.  The  escort  consisted  of  Wiir- 
temburg  infantry.  About  two  o'clock  there  came  two  thousand 
more  prisoners,  amongst  them  negroes  in  Arab  garb — broad- 
shouldered  figures  with  savage  faces,  looking  like  apes,  and  a 
number  of  old  troopers  wearing  the  Crimean  and  Mexican 
medals.  A  tragi-comical  incident  happened  here.  One  of  the 
troop  of  prisoners  marching  along  noticed  a  wounded  man  in 
the  market-place,  and  recognized  his  brother,  with  a  cry,  "  Eh, 
mon  frere !"  He  tried  to  run  out  to  him.  But  Godfather 
Schwab,  of  the  escort,  said,  "  Is  it  freezing  (frieren)  you  are  1 
I  am  freezing  too  ;"  and  pushed  him  back  into  the  column.  I 
beg  my  reader's  pardon  if  this  is  a  pun,  but  I  am  only  telling 
the  story,  and  did  not  make  it. 

After  three  o'clock  two  captured  guns  with  their  ammunition 
wagons  passed  through  our  street,  all  still  drawn  by  their  own 
French  horses.  On  one  cannon  there  was  written  in  chalk, 
"5th  Rifles,  Giirlitz."  Somewhat  later  a  fire  broke  out  in  a 
side  street  close  behind  our  quarters — the  Wiirtembergers  had 
there  broken  open  a  cask  of  brandy  and  incautiously  allowed  it 
to  catch  fire ;  they  were  said  to  have  demolished  another  house 
because  the  people  refused  them  Schnaps.  The  damage  done 
could  not  have  been  very  great,  for  when  we  came  to  the  place 
there  was  nothing  of  it  to  be  observed. 

There  was  hunger  now  among  the  inhabitants  of  our  little 
town,  and  our  host  himself,  who  as  well  as  his  wife  was  a  good 
soul,  was  in  want  of  bread.  The  place  was  over-full  from  the 
numbers  of  soldiers  quartered  there,  as  well  as  of  the  wound- 
ed, some  of  whom  were  laid  in  the  stables.  People  from  the 
court  wanted  to  take  our  house  for  the  Hereditary  Grand  Duke 
of  Weimar,  but  we  opposed  this  with  success.  Then  an  officer 
wanted  quarters  with  us  for  a  Mecklenburg  prince.  We 
showed  him  the  door,  and  told  him  it  would  not  do — this  was 
the  Chancellor's  place.  But  when  I  was  away  for  a  little 
time,  the  gentlemen  from  Weimar  had  forced  themselves  in, 
and  we  might  be  glad  that  they  had  not  appropriated  the  very 
bed  of  oi;r  Chief. 

About  ten  o'clock  the  Minister  had  not  yet  returned,  and 


ffhe  Secret  of  Pig  Driving.  79 

we  were  in  trouble  and  perplexity.  Some  accident  might  have 
happened  to  him,  or  he  might  have  returned  with  the  King 
from  the  battle-field  to  Vendresse.  He  arrived  after  eleven, 
an<I  I  had  supper  with  him.  The  Hereditary  Prince  of  Weimar, 
in  the  light  blue  uniform  of  a  hussar,  and  Count  Solms-Son- 
nenwalde,  formerly  of  the  embassy  in  Paris,  now  attached  to 
our  bureau,  but  hitherto  seldom  to  be  seen,  supped  with  us. 

The  Chancellor  told  us  all  sorts  of  things  about  his  ride  over 
the  field  of  battle.  He  had  been  nearly  twelve  hours  in  the 
saddle,  with  only  short  interruptions.  They  had  gone  over  the 
whole  battle-field,  and  found  the  greatest  excitement  in  all  the 
camps  and  bivouacs.  In  the  battle  itself  25,000  prisoners 
were  taken,  and  40,000  more  in  Sedan  after  the  capitulation, 
which  had  taken  place  at  mid-day. 

The  Minister  had  had  the  pleasure  of  meeting  his  youngest 
son.  "  I  discovered  in  him  "—so  he  said  at  dinner — "  a  new 
famous  talent — he  possesses  exceptional  dexterity  in  pig-driv- 
ing. He  had  found  out  the  fattest,  on  the  principle  the  fatter 
the  pig  the  slower  his  pace,  and  the  more  difficult  to  run  away: 
At  last  he  carried  it  otf  in  his  anns  like  a  child.  It  must  have? 
seemed  odd  to  the  French  officers  among  the  prisoners,  to  see  a. 
Prussian  general  embrace  a  common  dragoon." 

"In  another  place,"  he  went  on  to  say,  "they  smelt  sudden- 
ly a  strong  odor  as^of  roasted  onions.  I  remarked  that  it 
came  from  Bazeilles,  and  it  was  probably  the  French  peasants 
who  had  been  killed  by  the  Bavarians,  and  had  then  been  burnt 
in  their  houses,  because  they  had  fired  at  them  from  their  win- 
dows."  Then  they  spoke  of  Napoleon,  who  was  to  set  off  to- 
morrow morning  to  Germany,  and  indeed  to  Wilhelmshohe^ 
"  It  was  a  question,"  said  the  Chief,  "whether  they  should  go- 
by Stenay,  and  Bar-le-Duc,  or  through  Belgium."  "  But- 
here,"  replied  Soliiis,  ^"he  would  be  no  longer  a  prisoner."" 
"  That  would  not  matter  at  all,  even  if  he  had  gone  in  another- 
direction.  I  wjvS  for  liis  going  through  Belgium,  and  he  him- 
self appeared  inclined  to  do  so.  If  he  should  not  keep  his- 
word,  it  would  do  us  no  great  mischief.  But  to  make  this  tour, 
we  must  have  asked  permission  from  Brussels,  and  could  not 
have  got  an  answer  under  two  days." 

As  I  was  wading  about  ten  o'clock  in  the  morning  through 
the  frightfvil  filth  of  the  market-place  in  a  drizzling  rain,  there 
crowded  past  me  a  long  row  of  carriages  from  the  bridge  over 
the  Meuse,  escorted  by  the  black  Brluls^vicker  hussars.     They 


80  Bismarck  in  tJie  Franco-German  War. 

were  chiefly  covered  coaches,  tlien  baggage  and  cooking  wagons, 
and  lastly  a  number  of  cavalry  horses.  In  a  closed  coupe, 
immediately  behind  the  hussars,  by  the  side  of  General  Castel- 
neau  sat  the  "  Prisoner  of  Sedan,"  the  Emperor  Napoleon, 
on  his  way  through  Belgium  to  Wilhelmshohe.  There  fol- 
lowed him,  in  an  open  char  d,  bancs,  with  Prince  Lynar  and 
some  of  the  French  officers,  who  had  been  present  the  day  be- 
fore at  the  meeting  of  the  Chancellor  and  the  Emperor,  the 
general  of  infantiy.  General- Adjutant  von  Boy  en,  who  had 
been  selected  by  the  King  to  accompany  the  Emperor.  "  Boy  en 
will  do  admirably  for  this,"  said  our  Chief  to  us  the  night  be- 
fore, probably  thinking  that  the  officers  who  surrounded  the 
illustrious  captive  might  be  somewhat  insolent;  "he  can  be 
very  rude  in  the  most  polite  manner." 

We  learnt  some  time  afterwards  that  the  route  round  by 
Donchery  was  taken  because  the  Emperor  very  much  %vished 
not  to  pass  through  Sedan  again.  The  hus.sars  rode  with  them 
to  the  frontier,  near  Bouillon,  the  first  Belgian  town.  The 
Emperor  was  not  badly  received  by  the  French  prisoners 
whom  they  passed  on  their  way.  The  officers,  on  the  contrary, 
had  to  put  up  with  some  disagreeable  remarks.  They  were 
naturally  "traitors,"  as  from  henceforth  every  one  was  who 
lost  a  battle  or  sustained  any  defeat  from  us. 


Enraged  Soldiery.  81 


CHAPTER  VI. 

FROM  THE  MEUSE  TO  THE  MARNE. 


I  WILL  now  let  my  journal  once  more  speak  for  itself. 
Saturday,  September  3. — We  left  Donchery  this  morning 
rather  before  one  o'clock.  On  the  way  we  were  overtaken  by 
a  short  but  unusually  hea^■y  storm,  wdth  thunder  which  echoed 
through  the  valleys  for  a  long  time.  The  terrible  downpour 
which  followed,  wet  the  Chancellor,  who  was  in  an  open  car- 
riage, through  and  through,  even  under  the  armpits,  as  he  told 
us  at  dinner.  He  had  pulled  on  his  waterproof,  but  had  not 
found  much  good  from  it.  Fortunately  no  e%'il  consequences 
followed,  .but  the  time  is  arrived  when  diplomacy  must  come 
more  to  the  front  again  in  our  affairs,  and  if  the  Chief  were 
to  fall  ill,  who  could  replace  him  ? 

I  drove  with  the  Councillors,  and  Count  Bohlen  gave  us  all 
sorts  of  details  of  the  occurrences  of  the  last  few  days.  Napoleon 
had  left  Sedan  so  early — it  must  have  been  just  about  day- 
Ijreak,  if  not  sooner — because  he  did  not  feel  safe  in  the  midst  of 
the  enraged  soldiers,  who  crowded  together  in  the  f  ortre.ss,  were 
furious  when  the  news  of  the  capitulation  spread  through  the 
town,  and  broke  to  pieces  muskets  and  sabres,  wherever  they 
could  get  them.  The  Minister  had  said  to  Wimpffen  at  their 
first  interA"iew  at  Donchery,  that  he  was  well  aware  that  the 
arrogance  and  pugnacity  of  the  French,  and  their  envy  of 
their  neighbors'  successes,  did  not  come  from  the  laboring  or 
industrial  classes,  but  from  the  journalists  and  the  Parisians ; 
but  these  guided  and  controlled  public  opinion.  Accordingly, 
we  could  not  reckon  on  those  moral  guarantees  at  which  the 
general  hinted,  we  must  have  material  ones  ;  the  army  of  Sedan 
must  first  be  rendered  harmless,  and  then  the  great  fortresses  in 
the  East  must  be  handed  over.  The  troops  had  laid  down  their 
arms  on  a  sort  of  peninsula  formed  by  one  of  the  bends  of  the 


82  Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War. 

Meuse.  At  the  interview  between  the  King  and  the  Emperor, 
before  which  Moltke  had  ridden  out  a  little  to  meet  the  King 
on  his  road  from  Vendresse,  the  two  Sovereigns  were  left  for 
about  ten  minutes  alone  together  in  the  drawing-room  with  the 
glass  verandah,  in  the  little  chciteau  of  Bellevue.  The  King 
afterwards  called  the  officers  of  his  retinue  to  read  the  capitu- 
lation to  them,  while  he  thanked  them,  with  tears  in  his  eyes, 
for  helping  to  bring  it  about.  The  Crown  Prince  told  the 
Hessian  regiments  that  the  King  had  sent  the  captive  Em- 
peror to  Cassel  as  a  reward  for  the  bravery  with  which  they 
had  fought. 

The  Minister  dined  with  the  King  at  Vendresse,  where  we 
were  quartered  for  one  more  night,  but  he  came  back  in  time 
to  eat  pancakes  with  us.  He  read  to  us  part  of  a  letter  from 
his  wife,  which  in  Biblical,  but  most  energetic  language,  ex- 
pressed her  hope  of  the  destruction  of  the  French.  He  then 
said  thoughtfully:  "  H'm !  1866  in  seven  days.  This  time, 
perhaps,  seven  times  seven.  Yes ;  when  did  we  cross  the  fron- 
tier? On  the  4th  ?  No,  on  the  10th  August.  It  is  not  yet 
five  weeks  since  that.     Seven  times  seven — it  is  possible." 

I  again  sent  off  some  articles  to  Germany,  amongst  which  was 
one  on  the  results  of  the  battle  of  the  1st  September.  These 
results  have  grown  greater  bit  by  bit  since  yesterday,  as  at 
Koniggratz,  We  have  made  prisoners  of  more  than  90,000 
Red-breeches,  all  told,  and  captured  over  300  guns,  an  army  of 
horses,  and  an  enormous  quantity  of  war  material.  In  a  few 
days  we  shall  have  still  more,  for  of  MacMahon's  army,  which, 
after  Beaumont,  was  still  reckoned  at  nearly  120,000  men 
evidently  not  many  have  escaped. 

Bethel,  September  4,  evening. — Early  to-day  the  Chief  called 
me  to  him,  when  we  were  still  in  Vendresse,  to  give  me  an  ac- 
count, the  latter  part  of  which  he  almost  dictated,  of  his  meet- 
ing with  Napoleon,  for  the  newspapers.*  Soon  afterwards, 
about  half-past  nine,  the  carriages  drove  up  and  we  began  our 
journey  into  Champagne.  We  arrived  here,  in  Bethel,  about 
half-past  four.  The  place  is  a  middle-sized  town  and  full  of 
Wilrtemberg  soldiers.  As  we  drove  through  to  the  market- 
place, we  saw  French  prisoners  looking  down  upon  us  from  the 
first  story  windows  of  a  house  in  the  street.  The  quarter- 
master had  assigned  us  the  spacious  and  elegantly-furnished 

*I  have  worked  it  in  in  the  last  chapter. 


Elegantly  Furnished  A  partmenta.  83 

house  .of  M.  Duval,  in  the  Rue  Grand  Pont,  where  1  had,  next 
to  Abeken,  a  pretty  little  room  ^\-ith  mahogany  furniture  and  a 
four-poster  -n-ith  yellow  satin  hangings — a  pleasant  contrast  to 
last  night  in  Donchery.  The  whole  of  the  mobilised  foreign 
office  is  established  here. 

Reims,  September  o. — The  French  do  not  seem  to  look  upon 
us  all  as  barbarians  and  \-illains.  Many  of  them  e-vidently 
suppose  us  to  be  honorable  people.  I  went  this  morning  to  a 
shop  to  buy  some  shirt  collars.  The  shopman  told  me  the 
price  of  a  box,  and  when  I  put  down  two  thalers  for  them,  he 
handed  me  a  basket  full  of  small  money  that  I  might  take  the 
change  he  had  to  give  me. 

We  took  up  our  quarters  in  the  handsome  house  of  M. 
Dauphinot,  nearly  straight  opposite  the  grand  cathedral.  The 
Chief  here  lived  in  the  wing  to  the  right  of  the  entrance  into 
the  court,  on  the  first  floor  ;  the  Bureau  was  established  on  a 
i-aised  ground  floor,  under  the  Minister's  chamber,  while  a  room 
close  by  was  appropriated  for  a  dining-room,  I  found  my  bed- 
room in  the  left  Aving,  near  Abeken.  The  whole  house,  so  far 
as  I  can  see,  is  elegantly  furnished.  Once  more  I  sleep  in  a 
mahogany  four-poster,  with  silk  hangings,  have  cushioned  chairs 
covered  with  crimson  damask ;  a  mahogany  commode  with 
marble  top,  a  washhand-stand  and  night  table  of  the  same  kind, 
and  a  marble  chimney-piece  in  my  bedroom.  The  streets  are 
thronged  with  Prussians  and  Wiirtembergers.  King  WUliam 
did  the  Archbishop  the  honor  to  take  up  his  quarters  in  his 
palace.  I  hear  that  our  host  is  the  Mayor  of  Reims.  Keudell 
thinks  that  the  district  to  be  held  by  us  at  the  conclusion  of  the 
war  will  not  be  given  to  one  state,  nor  be  divided  among  sever- 
al, but  that  it  will  remain  as  the  property  of  the  whole  of  Ger- 
many. 

In  the  evening  the  Chief  was  at  dinner,  and  as  we  were  here  be- 
tween the  two  great  champagne  firms  of  the  country,  we  tried 
different  brands  of  that  wine.  It  was  mentioned  that  yesterday 
a  squadron  of  our  hussars  had  been  fired  upon  from  a  coffee- 
house. "  Then,"  said  the  Muiister,  "  the  house  must  be  at  once 
destroyed,  and  the  occupier  brought  before  a  court-martial. 
Stieber  must  be  directed  to  investigate  the  matter  without  de- 
lay." The  champagne  recommended  by  Count  Bohl en  was  good, 
and  he  was  specially  praised  for  finding  it,  I  suppose  by  me 
among  othei-s.  The  Mini-ster  said,  "Our  Doctor  is  not  like  the 
rest  of  the  Saxons,  who  drink  nothing  but  coffee."     I  replied. 


84  Bismarck  in  the  Franco- German  War. 

*'Yes,  your  Excellency,  that  is  why  I  am  so  downright,  occas- 
sionally  perhaps  not  perfectly  polite ;"  at  which  there  was  great 
laughter.  It  is  said  that  we  shall  remain  here  ten  or  twelve 
days. 

Tuesday,  September  6. — Early  betimes  to  the  Cathedral,  the 
chimes  of  the  bells  having  already  awakened  me  sevei-al  times 
■during  the  night.  A  magnificent  edifice,  of  the  best  period  of 
■Gothic  architecture,  dedicated  to  Our  Lady.  From  ten  till 
three  o'clock  I  worked  diligently,  without  once  looking  up ; 
amongst  other  things,  on  two  articles — one  of  considerable 
length,  the  other  shorter — upon  the  conditions  under  which 
Oermany  can  conclude  peace.  Our  Chief  considered  an  article 
in  the  Volks-Zeitung,  of  August  31,  "very  sensible  and  deserv- 
ing to  be  more  widely  circulated."  It  pronounced  against  the 
incorporation  of  the  conquered  provinces  of  France  in  Prussia ; 
and  after  attempting  to  show  that  this  would  not  strengthen 
l)ut  weaken  Prussia,  it  ended  with  these  words  :  "  Not  the 
aggi\andisement  of  Prussia,  but  the  unity  of  Germany  and  the 
rendering  France  innocuous,  are  the  objects  to  be  be  pursued." 
Bamberger  has  established  in  Nancy  a  newspaper  in  French ; 
to  which  news  is  to  be  sent  from  us  from  time  to  time. 

Before  dinner.  Count  Bohlen,  counting  the  covers,  said,  *'Are 
we  not  thirteen  at  table  to-day  1"  "It  is  well  you  mention  it, 
for  the  Minister  does  not  like  sitting  down  thirteen. "  Bohlen, 
to  whom  our  bodily  comforts  seem  to  be  entrusted,  had  evident- 
ly stimulated  the  genius  of  our  chef  de  cuisine  to  do  its  very 
best.  The  dinner  was  quite  sumptuous.  Von  Knobelsdorf, 
captain  of  the  guards,  Count  York,  and  a  tall,  slender,  rather 
shy  youth,  in  the  uniform  of  a  lieutenant  of  dragoons  with  a 
crimson  collar,  who  as  we  afterwards  heard  was  a  Count  Briihl, 
were  the  guests  of  the  Chancellor.  The  latter  brings  great  news 
with  him,  that  in  Paris  the  Republic  is  proclaimed,  and  a  Pro- 
visional Government  instituted,  in  which  are  the  leaders  of  the 
former  Opposition,  Gambetta  and  Jules  Favi-e.  Rochef ort,  also, 
of  La  Lanterne,  sits  with  them  in  high  counsel.  These  gentle- 
jnen,  it  is  said,  intend  to  carry  on  the  war  against  us.  In  that 
case  our  position  is  not  improved,  in  so  far  as  we  wish  peace, 
but  it  is  by  no  means  made  worse,  especially  if  the  Republic 
lasts ;  and  if  afterwards  they  want  to  win  good  friends  for 
JFrance  at  the  different  Courts. 

With  Napoleon  and  Lulu  all  is  over  for  the  present ;  the 
Empress  has  done  as  Louis  Philippe  did  in  1848  ;  she  has  left 


Count  Pien^efonds.  85 

the  field  and  is  said  to  be  ia  Brussels.  "What  sort  of  a  web, 
these  advocates  and  Utter ati  will  sprn,  who  have  come  in  her 
p^ace  will  soon  be  seen.  Whether  Fi-ance  will  recognize  their 
authority  remains  also  to  be  seen.  Our  Uhlans  are  already  at 
Chdteau  Thierry.  Two  days  more  and  they  might  be  before  Paris. 
But,  as  is  now  certain,  we  shall  be  at  least  a  week  longer  in 
Reims. 

Friday,  September  9. — In  the  forenoon  till  three  o'clock  1 
was  Avriting  all  kinds  of  articles  ;  amongst  others,  some  on  the 
inexplicable  attachment  of  the  Alsatians  for  France  ;  on  their 
voluntary  Helotism,  and  the  infatuation  which  prevents  their 
seeing  and  feeling  that  a  Gaul  regards  them  only  as  a  French- 
man of  the  second  class,  and  treats  them  in  many  respects  ac- 
cordingly. The  news  comes  that  Paris  is  not  to  be  defended, 
but  is  to  be  declared  an  open  city,  which  is  doubtful,  as  accord- 
ing to  other  accounts  they  have  still  regular  soldiers  at  their 
command,  though  not  many  now. 

Saturday,  September  10. — The  Chief  drove  out  early  with 
Hatzfeld  and  Bismarck-Bohlen  to  Chalons,  where  the  King  al.so 
was  going.  They  came  back  about  half-past  five  in  the  after- 
noon. Meantime,  after  four  o'clock,  Minister  Delbriick  ai'riv- 
ed  :  he  had  come  by  Hagenau  and  Bar-le-Duc,  and  had  had  many 
unpleasant  experiences.  He  had  travelled  with  General  Boyen, 
who  brought  Napoleon — or,  as  he  now  calls  himself,  Count 
Pierrefonds — without  accident  as  far  as  Cassel.  He  complain- 
ed that  he  had  not  been  able  to  bring  with  him  a  box  of  very 
old  Nordhausen,  which  had  been  entrusted  to  him,  I  forget 
"where,  for  head-quarters.  Further,  he  said  that  Napoleon  had 
declared  to  Boyen  that  he  had  been  forced  into  the  war  by 
public  opinion,  and  that  he  had  praised  our  troops  very  highly, 
especially  the  Uhlans  and  the  artillery. 

Sunday,  Septembe-  11. — About  twelve  o'clock  Abeken  and  I 
went  to  the  Protestant  church,  or,  as  they  call  it  here,  the 
Protestant  temple,  on  the  Boulevard,  in  which  there  is  a  high 
oratory,  with  galleries,  chancel,  and  a  small  organ,  but  -wdthout 
towers.  The  service,  which  was  conducted  by  the  military 
chaplain,  Frommel,  and  which  the  King,  Prince  Karl,  the 
Grand  Duke  of  Weimar,  the  Hereditary  Grand  Duke  of  Meck- 
lenburg, Bismarck,  and  Boon,  as  well  as  some  Prussian  and 
many  Wiirtemberg  officers  and  soldiers  attended,  began  with 
military  music,  instead  of  organ  playing.  First,  the  psalm, 
"  Prai.se  the  Lord,"  the  soldiers  singing  from  their  Psalm  Bookr. 


S6  Bismarck  in  the  F^ranco-German  War. 

Instead  of  the  Epistle  another  psalm  followed,  and  then  the 
Gospel  for  the  Thirteenth  Sunday  after  Trinity.  The  preacher 
took  his  text  from  1  Sam.  vii.  11  and  12  :  "And  the  men  of 
Israel  went  out  of  Mizpeh,  and  pursued  the  Philistines,  and 
^mote  them,  until  they  came  under  Beth-car.  Then  Samuel 
took  a  stone,  and  set  it  between  Mizpeh  and  Shen,  and  called 
the  name  of  it  Eben-ezer,  saying,  Hitherto  hath  the  Lord  helped 
us."  The  last  words  were  his  principal  subject ;  the  subordin- 
ate heads  dwelt  on  gratitude  for  the  help  of  the  Lord,  and  the 
vow  sworn  on  the  altar-stone  Eben-ezer  not  to  act  like  those 
whom  the  Lord  had  condemned,  and  the  hope  that  the  Lord 
would  grant  His  help  still  further,  especially  for  the  permanent 
unity  of  Germany.  The  discourse  was  not  unsuitable.  Many 
good  thoughts  were  well  expressed ;  but  Clovis  came  in  for 
somewhat  undeserved  honor,  because  he  was  baptised  (it  took 
place,  as  every  one  knows,  in  Reims),  although  every  student 
nowadays  knows  that  he  was  none  the  better  of  it,  as  after 
Taaptism  he  continued  to  be  a  crafty  and  sanguinary  tyrant. 
"What  the  preacher  said  about  St.  Louis  Avas  equally  awkward. 

In  the  course  of  the  day  a  JNI.  Werle  was  with  the  Chief,  a 
thin  old  gentleman  with  shaking  head  and  the  inevitable  I'ed 
ribbon  in  his  buttonhole,  which  seems  to  be  universal  among 
well-dressed  Frenchmen.  He  is  a  member  of  the  legislative 
"body,  and  proprietor  or  partner  in  the  firm  Veuve  Clicquot, 
and  it  is  said  that  he  wishes  to  consult  the  Minister  on 
the  means  of  meeting  tlie  distress  which  prevails  in  the 
town,  and  averting  a  rising  of  the  poor  against  the  rich. 
The  latter  fear  that  the  Red  Republic  may  be  declared  by  the 
•workmen,  who  seem  to  be  in  a  state  of  ferment ;  and  as  Reims 
is  a  manufacturing  to^vn,  having  ten  to  twelve  thousand 
ouvriers  within  its  walls,  the  danger  may  well  be  serious  when 
our  soldiers  have  to  leave  the  town.  No  one  could  have  dreamt 
of  this  a  month  ago :  Germaii  troops  the  defenders  of  the 
French  from  Communism — truly  a  miracle  of  miracles  1  M. 
"VVerle  speaks  German,  too ;  indeed  he  is,  by  birth,  they  say,  a 
countiyman  of  ours,  like  many  of  the  proprietors  of  the  great 
Champagne  manufactories  here  and  in  the  neighborhood. 

Monday,  September  12. — I  was  writing  different  articles  till 
midday.  In  Laon  the  French — though  it  may  have  been  the 
act  of  a  single  individual  person — have  been  guilty  of  a  wicked 
treachery.  Yesterday,  after  the  conclusion  of  the  capitulation 
and  after  the  entry  of  our  troops,  they  blew  the  citadel  into  the 


Moltke  and  Blumentkal.  87 

air,  hy  which  explosion  about  a  hundred  men  of  our  4th  battalion 
of  rifles  have  been  killed  or  wounded. 

The  following  is  the  view  which  the  Chancellor  takes  of  the 
general  position,  if  I  undei-stand  him  rightly.  Peace  seems  yet 
to  be  far  away,  as  there  is  no  government  in  Paris  which 
promises  durability.  When  the  time  for  negotiation  come.s,  the 
King  will  in\-ite  his  allies  to  come  to  a  common  understanding 
as  to  the  terms  which  we  ought  to  demand.  .  Our  main  object  is 
and  will  continue  to  be,  the  security  of  the  South- West  German 
frontiers  against  the  centuries  old  danger  of  a  French  invasion. 
A  new  neutral  intermediate  state,  like  Belgium  or  Switzer- 
land, would  be  of  no  use  to  us,  since  such  a  state  would  cer- 
tainly lean  to  France,  if  another  war  broke  out.  Metz  and 
Strassburg,  with  as  much  of  their  surroundings  as  is  necessary 
to  us,  must  become  our  frontier  territory  and  belong  to  all  Ger- 
many. A  partition  of  this  district  amongst  our  separate  state? 
is  not  to  be  thought  of.  Carrying  on  v,-ar  in  common  will  no' 
be  without  a  salutary  influence  upon  the  demand  for  the  unity 
of  Germany.  Prussia  will  as  a  matter  of  course,  after  the  war 
respect  the  free  will  of  the  South,  as  she  has  hitherto  done 
and  will  avoid  even  the  suspicion  of  any  pressure.  A  great  deal 
will  depend  upon  the  personal  feeling  and  decision  of  the  King  of 
Bavaria. 

Tuesday,  September  13. — Early  this  morning  a  military  band 
of  troops  from  Wiirtemberg  gave  the  Chief  a  morning  serenade 
which  musit  have  delighted  him  very  much.  If  the  gentlemen 
of  the  Stuttgart  Observer  hear  of  it !  In  the  course  of  the 
forenoon  the  Chancellor  summoned  me  six  times,  and  I  wrot« 
as  many  as  six  ai'ticles  for  the  press,  among  which  were  two 
for  the  French  newspapers  here,  which  had  also  received  news 
from  us  on  previous  days.  Further  measures  were  taken  to 
secure  for  General  von  Blumenthal  the  place  which  is  due  to 
him,  when  his  portrait  and  biography  are  given,  in  the  friendly 
illustrated  journals.  "The  newspapers  do  not  mention  him 
at  all,  .so  far  as  we  see,  although  he  is  chief  of  the  stafi"  of  the 
Crown  Prince ;  and,  after  Moltke,  has  up  to  this  time  been  of 
the  greatest  service  in  the  conduct  of  the  war." 

On  the  IJfih  September,  a  little  before  ten  "in  the  morning 
we  left  Reims,  the  cathedral  of  which  continued  visible  for  a 
long  time  across  the  level  country,  and  went  to  Chateau 
Thierry.  All  the  N'illages  were  full  of  Wiirtembergers,  and 
they  had   stationed  outposts,   both  of  infantry  and   cavahy, 


88  Bismarck  in  ilie  Fran€o-Geinf)ian  War. 

along  the  road  for  our  protection.  It  must  still  be  somewhat 
dangerous  here,  for  the  peasants  who  went  hobbling  about  -with 
their  wooden  shoes,  or  stood  before  their  houses,  looking  quite 
harmless  and  unintelligent,  are  capable  of  very  wicked  tricks. 
To  speak  plainly,  their  faces  are  extremely  simple-looking,  but 
perhaps  the  nightcaps  which  most  of  them  wear  give  them  that 
sleepy,  weak  appearance.  They  had,  without  exception,  their 
hands  in  their  long  trousers  pockets,  but  it  might  possibly  not 
be  mere  apathetic  indifference  which  made  them  clench  their 
fists  inside. 

About  five  o'clock  -we  arrived  at  Chateau  Thierry,  where 
we  all  found  comfortable  accomodation  together  in  the  hand- 
some house  of  a  M.  Sarimond  in  the  square  fronting  the  Church. 
The  host  was,  so  the  Minister  informed  us,  a  pleasant  man, 
with  whom  one  could  talk  about  all  sorts  of  things.  Chateau 
Thierry  is  a  charming  little  town.  It  lies  rather  raised  above 
the  banks  of  the  Marne  below  the  moss-covered  ruins  of  an  old 
castle.  It  is  spread  over  a  large  space  of  ground  and  has  many 
gardens.  Only  the  one  long  street  in  the  heart  of  the  town 
which  leads  up  to  the  church,  and  a  few  of  the  side  streets 
opening  on  it,  have  houses  standing  close  to  each  other.  The 
old  church  is  dedicated  to  Saint  Crispin  the  Cobbler — who  was 
so  benevolent  as  even  to  steal  leather  to  make  shoes  for  the 
poor — in  French,  Crepin, — perhaps  an  allusion  to  the  fact 
that  before  the  tanneries  which  still  flourish  here,  the  industry 
of  shoemaking  may  formerly  have  provided  food  for  a  great 
part  of  the  inhabitants. 

The  next  day  {Sept.  15)  we  set  out  at  noon,  after  breakfast- 
ing at  the  Hotel  Nogeant,  for  Meaux,  about  30  English  miles 
from  Chateau  Thierry,  and  only  about  the  same  distance  from 
Paris.  On  the  way  we  again  passed  for  hours  by  vineyards  of 
enormous  extent.  We  crossed  the  Marne  and  drove  through 
coppices,  and  over  the  spurs  of  the  hills  on  the  left  side  of  the 
valley.  At  the  village  of  Lusancy  we  halted  for  half  an  hour. 
Our  carriage  was  now  drawn  partly  by  horses  captured  at 
Sedan.  The  nearer  we  approached  to  Paris  the  closer  together 
were  the  sentries  posted,  especially  in  the  woods,  and  where 
there  were  alleys  of  trees.  They  now  consisted  of  Prussian  in- 
fantry (with  yell&w  shoulder-sti*aps).  We  could  see  very  little 
of  the  inhabitants  of  the  villages  as  we  passed  through.  Only 
the  landlords  and  the  old  people  seemed  to  have  been  left  be- 
hind.    Girls  and  young  wives  were  not  to  be  seen,  nor  young 


Meaux.  •     89^ 

children.     In  Lusancy  we  saw  ^vritten  in  chalk  over  one  house- 
door,   "  111  with  small-pox." 

Meanx  is  a  town  of  about  12,000  inhabitants,  and  stands  in" 
a  pleasant,  well-wooded  neighborhood.  It  has  beautiful  shady 
promenades,  with  large  green  gardens.  The  streets  in  the 
older  part  of  the  town  are  mostly  narrow  and  poor.  The  Chief 
lived  in  the  Rue  Trouchon,  in  the  splendid  house  of  the 
"Vicomte  de  la  3Iotte,  which  had  an  extensive  garden  behind 
it.  I  was  quartered  just  opposite,  in  the  house  of  a  Baron 
Vandeure,  an  old  gentleman,  who  had  fled,  and  at  whose 
writing-table  I  could  work  most  comfortably.  I  had  the  choice 
also  of  two  (.lifferent  bed-rooms,  and  of  a  foui'-poster  bed  with 
silk  and  another  with  linen  or  cotton  hangings.  Then  the 
view  from  the  Baron's  study,  the  Avindows  of  which  look  out 
on  a  little  garden  with  old  trees  and  creepers,  is  of  the  kind 
that  soon  makes  one  feel  at  home,  and  the  library  would  be 
most  welcome  if  we  were  here  for  amusement.  It  is  very  well 
chosen.  I  find,  for  instance,  Sismondi's  '  Histoire  des  Fran- 
cais,'  Thierry's  collected  works.  Cousin's  '  Philosophical  Es- 
says,' Kenan's  '  Histoire  Religieuse,'  Rossi's  '  Economie 
Nationale,'  and  other  works  on  history  and  national  ecomomy. 

At  dinner  we  were  told  that  a  man  had  arrived  from  Paris, 
bearing  a  flag  of  truce,  and  they  pointed  out  a  thin  dark-haired 
young  fellow,  standing  in  the  court  in  front  of  the  Chief's 
house.  This  was  the  person  ;  and  from  his  talk  he  seemed  to 
be  an  Englishman.  At  dinner  to-day  both  the  Coiints  York 
"were  our  guests.  They  explained  to  us  why  we  had  seen  so 
few  men  in  the  villages.  They  had  found  great  crowds  of 
peasants  in  the  woods,  who  had  fled  there  with  some  of  theu' 
belongings,  especially  with  their  cattle,  and  highly  delighted 
they  were  when  they  were  told — they  were  mostly  unarmed — 
that  they  might  go  back  without  fear  or  anxiety  to  their  vil- 
lages. On  heai-ing  this,  the  Chief  said,  "  If  I  were  a  soldier 
and  had  to  order  things,  I  know  what  I  should  do.  I  should 
treat  all  who  remained  at  home  with  every  possible  attention 
and  respect.  But  I  should  consider  the  houses  and  furniture 
of  those  who  have  run  away  as  found  property.  And  if  I 
caught  them  I  would  take  away  their  cows  and  whatever  else 
they  had  with  them,  declaring  that  they  had  stolen  and  hidden 
them  in  the  wood.  It  would  be  well  if  they  could  first  be 
made  aware  that  the  different  sauces  with  which  we  cook  little 
French  children  are  all  lies." 


"90  Bi&march  in  the  Franco-German  War. 

Friday,  September  16. — A  splendid  bright  sunny  morning, 
with  a  deep  blue  sky  over  Bossuet's  city.  Early  in  the  morn- 
ing I  translated  for  the  King  a  letter  sent  to  him  by  James 
Parkinson,  an  English  prophet,  who  predicted  that  if  the  King 
did  not  put  a  stop  to  this  shedding  of  blood,  the  vengeance  of 
Heaven,  of  which  the  Emperor  Napoleon  would  be  the  instru- 
ment, would  overtake  him  for  the  "  Slaughter  of  the  Danes," 
and  the  "Blood  of  'Austria's  sons.'"  This  warning  was  dated 
August  29.  Three  days  later  the  telegraph  would  have  pre- 
vented it.  The  officious  fool  who  sent  this,  and  some  other 
English  fools  in  high  places  who  meddle  in  our  affairs,  would 
have  done  better  to  remember  that  England  has  her  own  door- 
step to  sweep  clean,  that  we  are  defending  ourselves  against 
the  most  outrageous  arrogance  in  a  just  war ;  that  we  have  not 
yet  thought  of  wantonly  burning  peaceful  villages,  or  of  blow- 
ing men  from  the  mouths  of  cannon,  as  they  have  done  in  wars 
ten  times  less  justifiable. 

The  young  black-haired  gentleman  of  yesterday,  who  was 
supposed  to  have  come  with  a  flag  of  truce,  and  who  had  a  long 
talk  with  the  Chief  in  the  evening  over  a  bottle  of  Kirschwasser 
(cherry  cordial),  is  Sir  Edward  Mallet,  an  attache  of  the  Eng- 
lish Embassy  in  Paris.  He  had  brought  a  letter  from  Lord 
Lyons,  in  which  he  asked  whether  the  Count  would  confer 
with  Favre  on  the  conditions  of  an  armistice.  The  Chancellor 
is  said  to  have  answered  liim  :  "On  the  conditions  of  a  Peace, 
yes  ;  on  the  conditions  of  an  Armistice,  no."  * 

There  was  some  talk  about  the  King  not  going  to  Paris,  but 
•of  his  awaiting  the  course  of  events  at  Ferrieres,  the  seat  of 
Rothschild,  lying  about  half-Avay  between  Meaux  and  Paris. 

At  dinner,  Prince  Hohenlohe  was  a  guest.  The  Chief,  after 
returning  from  dining  with  the  King,  was  also  present.  We 
learnt  that  Reims  was  to  be  the  centre  of  administration  of  the 
^French  provinces  occupied  by  our  army,  outside  Elsass  and 
Lothringen ;  that  the  Grand  Duke  of  Mecklenburg  was  to  have 
the  supreme  control  as  Governor  General,  and  that  Hohenlohe 
was  to  take  office  under  him. 

In  conversation,  the  Chief  said  to  his  cousin,  who  was  com- 
plaining of  not  feeling  very  well :  "  When  I  was  thy  age"  (his 
cousin  was  about  thirty -eight)  "  I  was  quite  intact,  and  every- 

*  He  cannot  well  have  done  so,  if  we  comDare  this  with  what  happened 
liter. 


The  Chiefs  Opinion  of  the  French.  91 

thing  agreed  with  me.  It  was  at  St.  Petersburg  that  I  got  my 
tii-st  shake." 

Some  one  turned  the  convei-sation  to  Paris,  and  the  French 
in  connection  with  the  Alsatians ;  and  the  Chief  expatiated  on 
this  theme,  telling  me  aftei-wards — giving  me  leave,  or  a  hint 
at  least,  to  report  his  words,  or  the  sense  of  them,  to  the  news- 
papers. "The  Alsatians  and  Gei-man-Lorrainers,"  he  said, 
"  supplied  the  French  with  many  clever  people,  especially  in 
their  army.  But  they  were  litttle  esteemed  among  them, 
seldom  advanced  to  the  higher  offices  of  the  state,  and  ridiculed 
by  the  Parisians  in  all  manner  of  anecdotes  and  caricatures. 
It  is  the  same,"  so  he  continued,  "  with  the  other  French  pro- 
^-incials,  but  not  so  much  so.  France  breaks  up,  in.  a  sense, 
into  two  nations,  Parisians  and  Provincials,  and  the  latter  are 
the  willing  helots  of  the  former.  France  may  now  be  emanci- 
pated from  the  domination  of  Paris.  The  man  who  feels  him- 
self as  a  provincial,  out  in  the  cold,  and  wants  to  come  to  some- 
thing, settles  in  Paris,  is  there  received  into  the  ruling  caste, 
and  shares  their  power  Might  we  not  force  the  Emperor  back 
on  them  as  a  punishment  1  At  any  rate  it  is  possible  ;  for  the 
peasants  do  not  want  the  tyranny  of  Paris.  France  is  a  nation 
of  ciphere — a  mere  crowd  ;  they  have  money  and  elegance,  but 
no  individual  men,  no  feeling  of  individuality ;  they  act  only  in 
the  mass.  They  are  thirty  millions  of  obedient  Kaflfres,  each 
without  a  native  'ring'  or  a  personal  value.  It  would  be  easy 
to  get  sixty  people  together  capable  of  holding  down  all  the 
rest  of  these  people  who  are  "without  character  or  personrJity, 
so  long  as  they  are  not  united." 

Saturday,  September  17. — I  went  early  for  an  hour's  walk  vath 
Willisch  along  the  green  Marne,  where,  at  a  gi'eat  public  wash- 
ing establishment,  women  were  beating  shirts  and  bed-linen  in 
the  river,  do^vTi  to  the  old  bridge,  over  the  one-half  of  which 
stand  the  buildings  of  a  mill  several  stories  high,  and  then  on 
to  the  suburb  on  the  left  bank  of  the  stream.  At  the  end  of 
the  Rue  Corillon  another  bridge,  which  has  been  blown  up, 
crossed  a  gorge  or  deep  cutting,  at  the  bottom  of  which  there 
is  a  canal.  The  interruption  of  traffic  caused  by  the  destruc- 
tion of  this  bridge  has  been  already  so  far  remedied  by  our 
pontooners,  that  not  far  from  the  ruins  which  block  up  the 
canal  they  have  made  a  temporary  bridge  for  single  horsemen, 
over  which  a  squadron  of  Bavarian  cuirassiers  happened  to  be 
just  passing  one  behind  the  other. 


92  Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War. 

On  the  way  back  we  met  a  long  train  of  wagons,  with  mili- 
tary stores,  which  reached  from  the  ruined  bridge  quite  to  the 
middle  of  the  town.  At  one  corner  of  a  street  we  saw  several 
placards,  amongst  them  an  adch'ess  yards  long  from  Victor 
Hugo  to  the  Germans,  very  piteous  and  high-flown,  at  once 
sentimental  and  pompous ;  a  whipped-up  trifle,  with  fine 
phrases  stuck  in  as  if  for  plums,  thoroughly  French.  What  can 
the  queer  man  take  us  for,  if  he  thinks  that  our  Pomeranians 
and  East  Prussians,  with  their  sound,  manly  intelligence,  can 
like  such  stuff*  as  this  1  A  man  in  a  blouse  near  me,  who  w\is 
reading  it  half  aloud,  said  to  me  '  C'est  Men  fait,  Moihsieur, 
vHest-ce  fasV  ("Well  Avritten,  sir,  is  it  not  "J")  I  answered 
that  it  grieved  me  to  the  soul  to  be  obliged  to  say  that  it  was 
utter  nonsense.     What  a  face  he  pulled ! 

Sii^nday,  September  18. — Early -in  the  morning  articles  were 
written  for  Berlin,  Hagenau  and  Reims.  Among  other  things 
they  dealt  with  the  phrase  of  Favre  :  "Za  rejnMique  c'  est  la 
2Mix  "  ("The  Republic  is  peace  ").  The  line  of  thought  -svhich 
I  followed  was  mainly  this  :  France  has,  for  the  last  forty 
years,  always  pretended  to  be  peace,  and  has  always  and  under 
all  forms  been  the  exact  opposite.  Twenty  years  ago,  the  em- 
pire said  it  was  "peace"  the  Republic  now  says  the  same  thing. 
In  1829,  Legitimacy  was  "peace,"  and  at  that  very  time  a 
Russian  and  French  league  was  formed  which  was  only  prevent- 
ed by  the  Revolution  of  1830  from  fulfilling  its  object,  an 
aggressive  war  against  Germany.  It  is  notorious  that  the 
"peaceful"  government  of  the  Citizen  King  wanted,  in  1840,  to 
take  the  Rhine  from  us,  and  it  can  never  be  forgotten  that  the 
Second  Empire  has  cai'ried  on  more  wars  than  all  the  preceding 
forms  of  government.  We  may  infer  what  we  have  to  expect 
from  Favre's  asseveration  with  respect  to  the  Republic.  To  all 
such  illusions  Germany  has  to  oppose  the  words,  "  La  France  c'  est 
guerre"  ("France is  war"),  and  it  is  in  accordance  with  this 
conviction  that  Ave  demand  the  cession  of  Metz  and  Strassburg. 

I  find  this  addition  to  my  journal :  To-day  the  Wiirtemberg 
War  Minister,  von  Suckow,  was  for  a  considerable  time  upstairs 
with  the  Chief.  He  reported  that  in  Swabia  the  cause  of  Ger- 
many was  all  right;  that  things  looked  less  promising  in 
Bavaria  ;  and  that  Bray,  the  Minister,  had  been  as  unnational 
as  he  well  could  be  under  the  circumstances. 

In  the  afternoon  a  M.  B.  appeared  at  my  house,  who  took  up 
his  quarters,  with  his  two  boxes,  quite  coolly  down  below  with 


My .   Weale,  of  Jenley.  93 

the  guards.  He  had  afterwards  some  conversation  ^vith  the 
Chief ;  and  from  his  ] lassport  appeared  to  be  a  merchant  ti-avel- 
ling  for  Count  Pierrefonds. 

Monday,  September  19. — In  the  morning  I  prepared  for  the 
IMilitary  Cabinet  an  extract  in  German  from  an  English  letter 
addressed  to  the  King.  The  author,  who  claims  to  be  descend- 
ed from  the  Plantagenets,  is  named  Weale,  of  Jenley,  in  Pem- 
brokeshire, formerly  an  engine-driver.  Like  Mi\  Parkinson, 
who  some  days  ago  obtruded  himself  Avith  his  prophecies,  he 
has  evidently  a  bee  in  his  bonnet,  but  is  at  the  same  time  a 
good  sort  of  fellow.  With  many  pious  reflections,  horribly 
spelt,  he  warns  us  of  pits  and  traps  which  are  laid  for  the  Prus- 
sians in  the  woods  of  Meudon,  Marly,  and  Bondy,  on  the 
ground  of  a  conversation  between  an  Irishman  and  a  French- 
man, which  he  says  he  heard.  He  winds  up  with  blessing  the 
Kling,  his  family,  and  all  his  subjects. 

We  hear  for  certain  that  Jules  Favre  will  be  here  to-day  at 
twel\  e  o'clock  to  treat  with  the  Chief.  The  fine  weather  seems 
to  favour  him.  About  ten  o'clock  Count  Bismarck-Bohlen 
comes  down  from  the  Chancellor.  "  We  are  to  be  off  at  once," 
to  the  Chateau  of  Ferrieres,  fifteen  miles  away.  We  have  to 
pack  up  and  be  off  immediately.  With  great  difiiculty  Theiss 
gets  my  clothes  from  the  washerwoman.  Then  we  leai-n 
Abeken  and  I  are  to  remain  with  one  carriage  and  a  servant 
and  to  follow  at  a  later  hour.  At  last,  about  eleven  o'clock, 
we  have  breakfast  with  the  Chief,  at  which  there  was  some  rare 
old  white  Bordeaux,  which  the  owner  of  the  house,  a  Legitimist 
lady  by  the  way,  honoured  the  Minister  with,  as  it  appeared, 
because  we  had  done  no  mischief  to  her  or  to  hers.  The  Chief 
had  guessed  the  Legitimist  feeling  of  the  old  lady  from  the 
Lucerne  lion  over  his  bed. 


9t  Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

BISMARCK  AND   PAVRE   IN    HAUTE-MANSIOK. — A   FORTNIGHT 

IN  Rothschild's  chateau. 


AT  twelve  o'clock  on  September  19,  Jules  Favre  had  not 
yet  arrived,  and  they  did  not  wait.  The  Minister, 
however,  left  a  letter  for  him  at  the  Marie,  and  told  the  servant 
of  our  Viscountess  to  inform  him  of  it  if  he  came.  To-day  the 
Chief  and  the  Councillors  went  round  the  estate  of  the  gi'eat 
Parisian  money-broker,  and  for  some  time  they  rode  before  the 
carriages,  in  the  second  of  which  I  sat  by  myself.  We  first 
drove  past  the  house  where  the  King  is,  which  is  a  fine  mansion 
on  the  Promenade,  and  then  out  of  the  town  along  the  canal  on 
the  left  bank  of  the  river,  till  we  were  able  to  cross  the  latter 
by  means  of  a  temporary  bridge.  At  the  village  of  Mareuill 
the  road  slightly  ascended,  running  along  the  first  steps,  so  to 
speak,  of  the  chains  of  hills  which  on  this  side  run  parallel  to 
the  river  and  the  canal,  through  a  well-cultivated  country,  with 
vegetable  gardens,  orchards,  and  vineyards  of  blue  grapes. 

Here,  between  the  villages  of  Mareuill  and  Montry,  at  a  place 
where  the  high  road  made  a  sharp  descent,  under  fine  shady 
trees,  we  met  a  cai'riage  and  pair,  close  shut,  in  which  were  three 
gentlemen  in  ordinary  dress  and  a  Prussian  ofiicer.  One  of  the 
civilians  was  an  oldish  grey-bear'ded  gentleman,  with  a  protrud- 
ing under-lip.  "That  is  Favre,"  I  said  to  Kriiger,  who  was 
sitting  behind  me  ;  "where  is  the  Minister?'  He  was  not  to 
be  seen,  but  was  probably  on  before,  hidden  from  our  sight  by  , 
a  long  train  of  wagons,  some  of  them  piled  high  with  baggage. 
I  made  them  drive  quickly,  and  after  a  time  met  the  Chief 
with  Keudell  riding  back  to  us,  in  a  village  called,  I  believe, 
Chessy,  where  some  peasants  had  covered  a  dead  horse  with 
straw  and  chaff,  and  then  set  fire  to  it,  causing  a  most  dreadful 
odour. 


Guards  against  a  Surprise.  95 

'avre  passed  us,  your  Excellency,"  said  I ;  "  and  is  up 
there 

••  I  know  it,"  answered  he,  smiling  and  trotted  on. 

The  day  after  Count  Hatzfeld  told  us  some  paiticulars  of  the 
meeting  of  the  Chancellor  with  the  Parisian  Advocate  and 
Regent.  The  Minister,  the  Count,  and  Keudell  were  a  good 
mile  and  a  half  before  us  on  the  road,  when  Hofrath  Taglioni, 
who  was  with  the  King's  carriages,  had  told  him  that  Fa^Te 
had  driven  by.  He  had  come  by  another  road,  and  reached 
the  spot  where  it  joined  this  one,  after  the  Chief  and  his  com- 
panions had  passed.  The  Chief  was  indignant  that  he  had  not 
been  told  of  it  before.  Hatzfeld  spurred  after  Favre  and 
turned  back  with  him.  After  a  time  Count  Bismarck-Bohlen 
met  them,  and  galloped  back  to  tell  the  Minister,  who  was 
still  a  good  bit  off  with  Keudell.  At  last  they  met  near 
Montry.  The  Minister  hunself  thought  of  going  with  the 
Frenchman  into  a  house  here  ;  but  as  the  high-lying  chateau  of 
Haute-Maison  was  only  about  ten  minutes  walk  distant,  and 
was  considered  a  more  suitable  place,  they  went  there. 

Here  they  met  with  two  Wiirtemburger  dragoons,  one  of 
whom,  with  his  carbine,  was  posted  as  guard  at  the  door.  A 
French  peasant  also  was  there,  whose  face  looked  as  if  he  had 
had  a  severe  beating,  and  whom  they  asked  if  there  was  any- 
thing to  be  had  to  eat  and  drink.  Whilst  they  were  speaking 
to  him,  Favre,  who  had  gone  into  the  chateau  with  the  Chancellor, 
came  out  and  had  a  discourse  with  his  countryman  full  of  pathos 
and  fine  feeling.  "  Surprises  might  be  attempted  :  this  must 
not  be.  He  was  no  spy,  but  a  member  of  the  new  Government, 
who  had  taken  the  weal  of  the  country  in  hand,  and  was- 
responsible  for  its  honourable  conduct ;  and  he  called  upon  this- 
peasant,  in  the  name  of  the  riglits  of  nations  and  the  honour  of 
France,  to  see  that  this  house  was  held  sacred.  His,  the 
Regent's  honour,  and  the  peasant's  honour  peremptorily  de- 
manded this;"  an  1  such  like  fine  phrases.  The  worthy  but 
somewhat  stupid  peasant  lad  listened  to  this  flood  of  words- 
with  a  very  simple  look,  evidently  understood  as  little  of  it  as- 
if  it  iiad  been  Greek,  and  made  such  a  face  that  Keudell  said^ 
"  If  that  fellow  is  to  protect  us  against  a  surprise,  I  had  much 
rather  depend  on  the  soldier  there." 

I  learnt  from  another  source  in  the  evening  that  Favre  had 
been  accompanied  by  M.  Rink  and  'Si.  Hell,  formerly  secretaries 
of  Benedetti,  aa.well  a.s  by  Prince  Biron,  and  chat  quarters  had 


96  Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War. 

been  found  for  him  in  the  village  near  FeiTitres,  where  he  hoped 
to  have  another  interview  with  the  Chief.  Kendell  said, 
"  When  the  Chancellor  left  the  room  where  he  and  Favre  had 
been  talking,  he  asked  the  dragoon  at  the  door  where  he  came 
from."  "From  Hall  in  Swabia."  "Well,  you  may  boast 
hereafter  that  you  were  on  guard  at  the  fii*st  peace  negotiation 
in  this  war." 

The  rest  of  us,  meanwhile,  had  to  wait  a  long  time  at  Chessy 
for  the  Chancellor,  and  took  occasion,  probably  with  his  leave, 
to  drive  on  towards  Ferrieres,  which  was  about  six  miles  off. 
On  the  road  we  crossed  the  line  of  the  zone  round  Paris,  with- 
in which  the  French  have  diligently  destroyed  eA-crything. 
But  here  the  destruction  was  only  partial.  The  inhabitant*  of 
the  \411ages  which  we  visited  seemed  to  have  been  mo«tly  driven 
away  by  the  Gardes  Mobiles.  So  far  as  T  know,  we  did  not 
see  one  dog,  biit  ir.  some  yards  there  wer«  a  few  hens.  On 
most  of  the  doors  which  we  passed  there  wag  written  in  cliaik, 
"The  Corporal's  Guard  N.,"  or  "One  ofticer  and  two  horses," 
or  something  of  that  kind.  In  the  villages  on«  roiueg  occasion- 
ally to  town-like  houses,  and  outside  of  them  Uiere  were  villas 
and  mansions  with  parks,  showing  the  proximity  of  the  great 
city.  In  one  of  the  villages  through  which  -^'c  passed  lay  sev- 
eral hundred  empty  Avine  bottles  in  the  ditch  ami  on  the  Held 
near  the  road.  A  regiment  had  discovered  here  a  good  source 
whereat  to  quench  itfi  thirst,  and  had  lialted  for  tliat  purpose. 
There  was  no  sign  to  bo  seen  on  the  road  of  the  guards,  or  the 
other  prudential  measures  wliich  had  been  observed  at  Chateau 
Thierry  and  Meaux,  which  might  liave  been  hazardous  for  the 
Ohief  Avhen  Jic  returned  late  in  the  eA-ening  and  Avith  only  a 
«niall  escort. 

At  last,  as  it  began  to  grow  dusk  Ave  droA^e  into  the  A^illage 
of  Ferrirres,  and  soon  aftcn-  into  Rothschild's  property,  Avhich 
is  situated  close  by,  in  the  castle  of  which  the  King,  and  with 
liim  the  higher  division  of  the  great  headquarters,  took  up  their 
rabode  for  some  time.  The  jNIinister  A^-^as  to  have  his  quarters 
jn  the  last  three  rooms  of  the  right  Aving  on  the  first  floor, 
Avhere  he  looked  out  upon  the  meadoAvs,  the  lake  and  the  castle 
park ;  Avhile  the  Bureau  took  possession  of  one  of  the  larger 
rooms  of  the  ground  floor,  and  a  smaller  room  in  the  same  corridor 
Avas  used  as  a  dining-room.  Baron  Rothschild  had  fled,  and  Avas 
in  Paris,  and  had  left  behind  only  a  house-steward  or  castellan, 


First  Negotiatiotis  for  Peace.  97 

who  looked  a  person  of  the  highest  consequence,  and  three  or 
four  women  servants. 

It  was  dark  when  the  Chief  arriA'ed  last  of  all,  and  he  soon 
after  sat  down  with  us  to  dinner.  While  it  was  going  on  Favi-e 
sent  to  enquire  when  he  could  come  to  continue  the  negotia- 
tions, and  from  half-past  nine  till  after  eleven  he  had  a  confer- 
ence alone  with  the  Chancellor  in  our  Bureau.  When  he  left 
lie  looked — a*  my  journal  remarks — perhaps  he  had  not  quite 
laid  aside  the  part  he  had  been  playing  so  as  to  act  on  our 
fc' -lings  — crushed  and  depressed,  almost  despairing.  The  con- 
lersation  appeared  to  have  led  to  no  result :  the  gentlemen  in 
Paris  will  have  to  become  more  pKable.  Their  emissary  and 
and  representative  was  rather  a  big  man,  vnih.  grey  whiskers 
coming  round  under  liis  chin,  a  somewhat  Je-wdsh  type  of  coun- 
tenance, and  a  hanging  under  lip. 

During  dinner  we  had  to  admire  an  illustration  of  the  hos- 
pitality and  sance  of  decency  of  the  Baron,  whose  house  the 
\\m^  was  honoring  with  his  presence,  and  whose  property, 
tli'^rr-fore,  was  spAred  in  every  way.  Baroji  Rothschild,  the 
hundredfohl  millionaire,  who,  besides,  had  been  till  a  very 
recf-nt  date  Con«ul-Ge]\eral  of  Prussia  in  Paris,  insolently  re- 
fused ui,  through  hi«  st^eward,  the  wino  which  we  wanted,  al- 
though I  may  remark  that  this  and  every  other  requisition  was 
to  be  paid  for.  When  cited  before  the  Chief,  the  man  impud- 
ently persisted  in  bis  refusial,  positively  denied  that  he  had  any 
wine  in  the  house,  thougli  he  afterwards  admitted  that  he  had 
in  the  cellar  a  few  hundred  bottles  of  "petit  Bordeaux" — in 
fact,  there  was  more  than  seventeen  thousand  bottles — but  de- 
clared that  he  could  not  let  us  liave  any.  The  Minister,  how- 
CA'er,  explained  his  point  of  view  to  the  man  in  a  very  forcible 
manner,  insisting  that  it  was  a  most  uncourteous  and  niggard- 
ly way  in  which  his  master  ^\as  returning  the  honor  which  the 
King  had  shown  him  by  putting  up  in  his  house  ;  and,  when 
the  burly  fellow  looked  as  if  he  intended  to  give  ug  a  little  more 
insolence,  asked  him  sharply  if  he  knew  what  a  "  Strohbund  " 
was  ]  Our  friend  appeared  to  guess,  for  he  became  pale, 
though  he  said  nothing.  It  was  then  explained  to  him  that  a 
"  Strolihund  "  is  a  truss  of  straAv  upon  which  refractory  and 
insolent  house-stewards  are  laid,  back  uppermost,  and  he  might 
easily  imagine  the  rest.  Next  day  we  had  what  we  wanted, 
and,  as  far  as  I  know,  afterwards  had  no  cause  of  complaint. 
But  the  Baron  received  for  his  wine  not  only  the   price  that 


98  Bismarck  in  the  Franco- German  War. 

was  asked,  but  something  over  and  above  for  the  good  of  the 
house  ;  so  that,  on  the  whole,  he  made  a  pretty  good  thing 
out  of  us.  The  exceptional  respect  for  Rotlischild's  seat  was  in 
every  respect  maintained  till  the  conclusion  of  the  war.  The 
greater  was  our  annoyance,  therefore,  at  learning  that  Roths- 
child had  spread  in  Parisian  society  a  report  exaggerating  and 
falsifying  the  words  of  our  Chief,  saying  that  the  Prussians 
had  wished  to  flog  his  house-steward  at  Ferrieres,  because  the 
pheasants  which  he  set  before  them  had  not  been  trufiled. 

The  morning  next  but  one  the  Minister  came  into  the 
"  Chambre  de  Chasse  "  of  the  mansion,  a  room  fitted  up  with 
beautifully  carved  oak  furniture,  and  ornamented  with  precious 
china  vases,  which  we  had  transformed  into  our  bureau,  and 
inspecting  the  game-book,  which  was  lying  on  the  table  in  the 
middle  of  the  room  he  showed  me  the  page,  dated  November 
3rd,  1856,  which  recorded  that  on  that  day  he  himself,  with 
Gallifet  and  others,  had  shot  here,  and  that  he  had  killed 
forty-two  head  of  game,  fourteen  hares,  one  rabbit  and  Iwenty- 
seven  pheasants.  "Now,"  he  said,  "along  "vvith  Moltke  and 
others,  I  am  after  nobler  game,  the  wolf  of  Grand  Pre."  At 
that  date  he  had  no  presentiment  of  it,  and  his  fellow  sports- 
men assuredly  had  even  less. 

About  eleven  o'clock  he  had  a  third  meeting  with  Favre, 
subsequent  to  which  a  council  was  held  with  the  King,  at 
which  Moltke  and  Roon  were  present.  After  some  letters  had 
been  written  to  Berlin,  Reims,  and  Hagenau,  I  had  two  hours 
on  hand  to  make  myself  acquainted  with  our  new  abode.  I 
used  this  time  in  looking  over  the  mansion,  so  far  as  it  was 
open  to  us,  and  in  rambling  about  through  the  park,  which  lay 
on  the  south  side  of  the  house,  and  a  flower  garden  on  the  north, 
about  400  paces  to  the  west  of  the  mansion  are  the  stables  and 
farm  buildings,  and  opposite  these,  on  the  other  side  of  the  car- 
riage drive,  a  very  large  fruit  and  vegetable  garden  with  rows 
of  fine  green-houses  and  hot-houses.  I  saw  also  in  the  park  a 
Swiss  cottage,  fitted  up  to  accommodate  some  servants,  and  to 
be  used  as  a  laundry. 

About  the  castle  itself  I  will  be  brief.  It  is  a  square  build- 
ing, of  two  stories,  and  at  each  of  the  four  corners  a  three- 
storied  tower,  with  a  rather  flat  roof.  The  style  is  a  mixture 
of  difierent  schools  of  the  Renaissance,  which  do  not  produce  a 
very  effective  whole.  The  edifice  does  not  look  so  large  as  it 
really  is.     The  south  front,  with  its  flight  of  steps  ornamented 


Crcesua  at  Home.  99 

■with  stately  vases,  leading  to  a  terrace,  upon  which  are  oranc^e 
and  pomegranate  trees  in  tubs,  looks  the  best.  The  chief  en- 
trance is  on  the  north  side,  having  a  vestibule,  with  busts  of 
Roman  emperors,  which  are  very  handsome,  though  it  is  not 
easy  to  see  what  they  have  to  do  in  the  house  of  the  Croesus  of 
modem  Judaism.  From  this  a  somewhat  narrow  staircase,  the 
walls  of  which  are  lined  with  marble,  leads  to  the  chief  room  of 
the  house,  round  which  runs  a  gallery,  supported  by  gilded 
Ionic  columns.  The  walls  above  these  are  hung  with  Gobelin 
tapestr}-,  and  among  the  pictures  of  this  gorgeously -furnished 
room  there  is  an  equestrian  portrait  by  Yelasquez.  Amid  so 
many  beautiful  objects,  the  eye  wanders  first  to  one  and  then  to 
another,  but  the  whole  gives  one  the  impression  that  the  pos- 
sessor thought  less  of  beauty  or  comfort  than  of  bringing  to- 
gether the  costliest  articles. 

If,  however,  the  mansion  leaves  one  somewhat  cold,  the  gar- 
dens and  park  deserve  the  highest  praise.  This  applies  not 
only  to  the  flower-garden  in  front  of  the  north  facade,  with  its 
statues  and  fountains,  but  in  a  still  higher  degree  to  the  more 
remote  parts  of  the  park,  which  end  in  forest,  and  through 
which  there  are  straight-lined  carriage  drives  and  paths,  some 
of  them  leading  to  a  large  manor-farm.  Here  there  are  beau- 
tifvQ  foreign  trees,  both  singly  and  in  tasteful  groups,  and 
there  is  a  charming  vaiiety  of  wood,  meadow,  and  water,  with 
occasional  lovely  glimpses  through  the  trees  and  shrubberies. 
In  front  of  the  mansion  lio  smooth  grass  plats,  with  gravel 
walks  ■s^'inding  through  them  to  a  lake,  with  black  and  white 
swans,  Turkish  ducks,  and  other  bright-colored  water-fowl.  Be- 
yond this  wat«r,  to  the  right  rises  an  artistically-planted  hill, 
where  winding  paths  lead  through  shrubberies,  fir  woods,  and 
leafy  trees,  to  the  summit.  On  the  left  of  the  lake  is  a  small 
deer-park,  and  further  on,  on  the  same  side,  a  little  stream, 
which  runs  murmuring  at  the  edge  of  a  clearing  through  a  wood 
of  tall  forest  trees.  On  the  grass  in  front  of  the  steps  were 
sheep  and  poultr}-,  and  among  them  a  few  pheasants,  which 
were  mnning  in  great  troops  on  the  more  distant  sward.  Of 
these  birds,  there  are  as  many  as  four  or  five  thousand  in  the 
park.  Our  soldiers  acted  towards  all  these  good  things  as  if 
they  were  not  made  to  be  enjoyed  ;  but  they  took,  doubtless, 
another  view  of  them,  pre-eminent  in  which  was  a  healthy 
hunger.  "Tantalus  in  uniform,"  said  one  with  a  mytho- 
logical  turn  of   mind,  when  we  saw  three  of  those  daiuty 


100        Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War. 

birds,  which  are  uncommonly  good,  even  without  saioer  kraut 
d,  la  Rothschild — that  is,  boiled  in  champagne  —  walk  past 
a  sentry,  so  close  that  they  might  have  been  spitted  with  his 
bayonet. 

When  we  returned  from  our  travels  of  discovery  we  learned 
that  the  house  steward,  who  had  at  first  been  so  insolent,  had 
come  at  last  to  regard  us  as  not  altogether  unwelcome  guests. 
He  had  an  uncommon  dread  oi  the  fraiics-voleiors,  asthe/rancs- 
tireurs  were  now  often  called  by  people  of  property  in  the 
country,  and  this  fear  had  won  from  him  the  admission  that 
our  presence  had  a  pleasant  as  well  as  a  vexatious  side.  He 
said  to  one  of  us  that  those  gentlemen,  who  rivalled  the  Mobiles 
and  the  Chasseurs  d'Afrique  in  plundering  and  devastating  the 
neighborhood,  had  destroyed  everything  in  the  country  houses 
at  Clayes,  and  had  forced  the  peasants  sword  in  hand  to  leave 
their  houses  and  fly  into  the  woods.  They  might  have  taken 
it  into  their  heads,  had  we  not  been  at  Ferrieres,  to  pay  a  visit 
to  the  chateau.  The  possibility  had  presented  itself  to  his 
sorrow-stricken  mind,  that  they  might  have  considered  it 
advisable  to  burn  it  down.  Probably  in  consequence  of  these 
reflections  he  had  bethought  himself  that  the  Baron's  cellar 
contained  champagne,  and  that  he  might  cede  to  us  a  number 
of  bottles  at  a  good  price,  without  committing  a  deadly  sin. 
In  consequence  of  this  chaiige  of  mood  we  began  now  to  feel 
more  at  home. 

At  breakfast  we  heard  that  the  news  had  arrived  at  the 
general  staff  that  Bazaine,  who  must  have  been  completely 
surrounded  and  shut  iii  in  Metz,  had  asked  Prince  Frederick 
Karl  by  letter  whether  the  news  of  the  defeat  at  Sedan,  and 
of  the  proclamation  of  the  Republic  which,  he  had  received 
through  exchanged  prisoners,  was  correct,  and  that  the  Prince 
had  answered  him  in  the  affirmative,  both  by  letter  and  with 
the  corroboration  of  Parisian  newspapers. 

In  the  evening  I  was  summoned  to  the  Chief,  who  did  not 
appear  at  table,  and  who,  it  was  said,  was  not  very  well.  A 
narrow  Avinding  stone  staircase,  which  was  honored  with  the 
name  of  the  '^ Escalier particulier  de  Monsieur  le  Baron"  took 
me  up  to  an  elegantly-furnished  room,  where  the  Chancellor  lay 
on  a  sofa  in  his  dressing-gown.  I  was  to  telegraph  that  the  day 
before  the  French — we  had  heard  the  cannonade  but  had  not 
known  what  it  was — had  made  a  sortie  with  three  divisions  in  a 
sottthern  direction,  but  had  been  utterly  routed  and  driven  back. 


Cession  of  Territory  a  Condition  of  Peace.         101 

We  had  taken  seven  guns  and  more  than  two  thousand  prisoners 
in  the  affair. 

Wednesday,  September  21. — When  the  Chief  had  recovered 
from  his  indisposition,  there  was  again  more  to  be  done.  These 
labors,  both  in  their  matter  and  intention,  are  not  meant  for 
publicity,  like  many  other  excellent  things  then  done,  heard,  or 
experienced.  I  say  this  once  for  all,  solely  to  ob^date  the  sus- 
picion that  I  take  pai-t  in  this  campaign  more  as  a  pleasure- 
loving  Phaeacian  than  in  the  spirit  of  a  true  "  soldier  of  the 
pen." 

At  tea  we  heard  something  more  about  the  last  negotiation 
of  the  Chancellor  with  Jules  Favre.  The  attention  of  the  latter 
is  said  to  have  been  dra^svn  to  the  fact,  that  the  precise  con- 
ditions of  a  peace  could  not  be  communicated  to  him  until  they 
had  been  settled  in  a  meeting  of  the  German  powers  immedi- 
ately concerned ;  but  that  peace  would  not  be  concluded  with- 
out a  cession  of  territory,  as  it  Avas  a  matter  of  absolute 
necessity  that  we  should  obtain  a  better  frontier  against  French 
attacks.  There  was,  however,  less  discussion  in  this  conference 
about  peace  and  our  requirements  in  connection  with  peace, 
than  about  the  concessions  from  the  French  side  on  which  we 
could  grant  a  truce.  When  the  forfeiture  of  territory  was 
inentioned  Fa\Te  was  very  much  excited,  sighing  and  raising 
his  eyes  to  Heaven,  and  shedding  many  patriotic  tears.  The 
Chief  does  not  expect  that  he  "svill  come  again.  It  is  as  well, 
and  this  was  the  answer  sent  to  the  Crown  Prince,  who  had 
telegraphed  this  morning  to  inquire.  I  wrote  these  last  words 
early  on  the  22nd. 

Thursday,  September  22,  evening. — The  French  are  never 
tired  of  denouncing  us  to  the  world  as  tyrants  and  barbarians, 
and  the  English  press,  especially  the  Standard,  notoriously 
very  hostile  to  us,  eagerly  lends  its  help.  Almost  without 
intennission  that  journal  pours  out  upon  the  breakfast-tables  of 
its  readers  the  bitterest  calumnies  as  to  our  conduct  to  the 
French  population  and  to  the  prisoners  we  have  taken.  It  is 
always  asserting  that  eye-"\vitnesses,  or  people  otherwise  well- 
informed,  drawing  what  they  say  from  the  best  sources,  furnish 
these  lies  orthese  perversions  and  exaggerations  of  the  facts.  Thus 
within  these  last  few  days  the  Duke  of  Fitz James  hasdraivn  a 
horrible  picture  of  our  atrocious  cruelties  in  Bazeilles,  which 
he  pretends  to  have  depicted  only  in  its  true  colors  ;  and  in  the 
same  spirit  a  M.  L.,  who  plays  the  part  of  an  ill-treated  French 


102        Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War. 

officer  taken  prisoner  at  Sedan,  laments,  in  lugubrious  tones, 
the  inhuman  conduct  of  the  Prussians.  We  might  leave  this 
to  answer  itself,  but  a  duke  makes  an  impression  even  upon 
those  on  the  other  side  of  the  Channel  who  are  more  favorably 
disposed  to  us,  and  with  calumnies  sufficiently  audacious  some- 
thing always  will  stick.  Therefore  a  refutation  of  these  asper- 
sions goes  off  to-day  to  the  London  journals  favorably  disposed 
to  us.     To  this  effect : 

"  In  this  war,  as  in  every  other,  a  great  number  of  villages 
have  been  bui'ned  down  mostly  by  artillery  fire,  German  as 
well  as  French.      In  these,  women  and  children  who  have  taken 
refuge  in  the  cellars,  and  who  have  not  had  time  to  escape,  have 
perished  in  the  flames.     This  is  true  also  of  Bazeilles,  which 
was   taken   by  discharges  of   musketry,  and   retaken   several 
times.     The  Duke  of  FitzJames  was  an  eye-witness  merely  of 
the  ruins  of  the  village,  which  he  saw  after  the  battle,  as  thou- 
sands of  others  have  seen,  and  deplored  them.   Everything  else 
in  his  account  is  derived  from  the  stories  of  unfortunate  and 
embittered  people.     In  a  country  where  even  the  government 
developes  an  unexampled  and  systematic  capacity  for  lying,  it 
is  scarcely  to  be  expected  that  angry  peasants,  with  the  ruins 
of  their  burnt  houses  before  their  eyes,  should  have  any  great 
inclination  to  speak  the  truth  about  their  enemies.     It  has  been 
established  by  official  inquiry  that  inhabitants  of  Bazeilles,  not 
in  uniform,  but  in  blouses  and  shirt-sleeves,  fired  upon  wounded 
and  unwounded  German  troops  in  the  streets,  and  that  whole 
rooms  full  of  wounded  men  were  murdered  in  the  houses.     In 
like  manner  it  has  been  proved  that  women,  armed  with  knives 
and  guns,  committed  the   greatest  cruelties   against  mortally 
wounded  soldiers,  and  that  other  women,  certainly  not  in  the 
uniform  of  the  National  Guards,  took  part  in  the  l)attle  along 
with  the  male  inhabitants,    loading  their   companions'  guns, 
and  even  themselves  firing,  and  that  while  thus  engaged  they 
were  wounded  or  killed  like  other  combatants.     These  circum- 
stances were  of  course  not  told  to  the  Duke  by  his  informants, 
but  they  would  have  perfectly  justified  our  setting  fire  to  the 
village,  even  if  it  had  been  done  designedly  to  drive  the  enemy 
from  his  position.     But  an  intentional  setting  fire  to  the  village 
has  not  been  proved.     That  women  and  children  were  driven 
back  into  the  fire  is  one  of  the  malignant  lies  with  which  the 
French  alarm  the  population,  and  goad  them  to  hatred  against 
us.     They  thereby  cause  the  flight  of  the  people,  who  usually 


Plundering  German  Prisoners.  103 

return  to  their  villages  a  few  days  after  the  advance  of  the 
Germans,  quite  astonished  that  they  have  been  better  treated 
by  the  latter  than  by  French  troops.  Where  fear  does  not 
suffice  to  drive  the  inliabitants  to  flight,  the  Government  sends 
hordes  of  armed  men  in  blouses,  supported  sometimes  by  Afri- 
can troops,  to  drive  the  peasants  from  their  dwellings  "wdth  sabre 
cuts,  and  to  lay  waste  their  homes  as  a  punishment  for  their 
want  of  patriotism." 

M.  L.  congratulates  himself  on  preserving  his  leathern  purse. 
Tliis  is  the  strongest  proof  that  he  was  not  plundered ;  for 
there  is  no  soldier  who  does  not  carry  money  in  such  a  purse 
next  to  his  skin  at  the  present  day,  just  as  they  did  a  hundred 
and  fifty  years  ago.  If  the  German  soldiers  had  meant  to  have 
the  money  of  M.  L.,  they  knew  very  well  from  their  own  ex- 
perience where  to  find  it  on  him.  The  few  Germans  who  were 
taken  prisoners  by  the  French  can  tell  how  quickly  the  hands 
of  their  opponents  tore  open  the  uniform  of  the  captives,  and, 
when  the  leather  purse  stuck  too  closely,  cut  into  it  with  sword 
or  knife,  without  troubling  about  the  skin.  We  declare  the 
assertions  of  the  ill-treatment  of  prisoners  taken  at  Sedan  to 
be  shameless  and  unfounded  lies.  A  great  number  of  the 
French  prisoners — perhaps  a  fourth  of  them — were  beastly 
drunk,  ha^ng  plundered  as  they  did  in  the  last  hours  before 
the  capitulation,  all  the  stores  of  -vvine  aud  brandy  in  the  town. 
That  drunken  men  are  more  difficult  to  manage  than  sober  ones, 
is  intelligible  enough  ;  but  acts  of  ill-treatment  such  as  are  re- 
lated in  that  article  occurred  neither  at  Sedan  nor  anywhere 
else,  from  the  discipline  which  prevails  among  Prussian  troops. 
It  is  notorious  that  this  discipline  excited  the  admii-ation  of  the 
French  officers. 

We  cannot,  alas,  speak  as  favorably  of  the  troops  of  the 
enemy  in  this  respect  as  of  their  Ijravery  under  fire.  Often 
the  French  officers  were  unable  to  restrain  their  men  from  mur- 
dering the  severely  woimded  as  they  lay  on  the  ground,  and 
this  was  true,  not  merely  of  the  African  troops,  but  happened 
even  when  officers  of  higher  rank  attempted  to  defend  the 
wounded  Germans  against  the  attacks  of  their  own  men.  It  is 
well  known  that  the  German  prisoners  who  were  brought  to 
Metz  were  led  through  the  streets,  were  spat  upon,  beaten,  and 
stoned ,  and  when  they  were  discharged,  that  the  African  troops 
formed  a  lane  and  made  them  run  the  gauntlet,  amid  blows 
from  sticks  and  whips. 


104        Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War. 

I  note  once  for  all — First,  it  is  held  in  England  that  the 
razing  of  the  French  fortresses  in  the  East  is  sufficient  for  our 
security,  but  the  obligation  to  demolish  fortifications  consti- 
tutes a  servitude  which  is  always  more  grating  than  their 
cession.  Second,  they  pretend  to  infer  in  England  that  the 
fact  of  Strassburg  defending  itself  so  long  against  us,  proves  the 
devotion  of  its  inhabitants  to  France  But  the  fortress  of 
Strassburg  is  defended  by  French  troops,  not  by  the  German 
inhabitants.  The  obstinate  defence,  therefore,  is  no  display  of 
German  fidelity. 

Just  as  we  are  at  the  soup  one  of  the  Royal  servants  comes 
and  announces  that  the  Crown  Prince  proposes  to  dine  and 
stay  the  night,  and  he,  the  secretary,  Fourier,  or  whoever  it 
was,  adds  the  request  that  the  Bureau  and  the  large  room  up- 
stairs next  to  the  Chancellor's  room  should  be  given  up  to  the  five 
gentlemen  in  attendance  on  his  Royal  Highness.  The  Chief 
answers,  "  The  Bureau  1  certainly  not,  that  won't  do.  It  is 
needed  for  business."  He  then  places  at  their  disposal  his  own 
dressing-room,  and  offers  to  take  Blumenthal  or  Eulenberg  into 
his  bedroom.  He  requires  the  drawing-room  for  the  reception 
of  the  French  negotiators,  and  when  Princes  come  to  him. 
The  quartermaster  retired  with  a  long  face.  He  had  expected 
an  unconditioned  yes,  as  a  matter  of  course.  * 

Count  Lehndorf  was  present  at  dinner,  and  the  conversation 
was  lively.  When  mention  was  made  of  the  covering  old  Fritz 
in  the  Linden  with  black,  red,  and  yellow  colors,  the  Minister 
disapproved  Wurmb  having  allowed  the  controversy  about 
colors  to  be  raised.  "For  myself,"  says  he,  "when  the  North 
German  colors  were  accepted,  the  question  was  settled.  Other- 
wise the  discussion  about  colors,  is  a  matter  of  indifference  to 
me,  green  and  yellow,  or  the  colors  of  Mecklenburg-Strelitz ; 
only  the  Prussian  troops  will  have  nothing  to  do  with  black, 
red,  and  yellow."  Reasonable  people  will  not  take  it  amiss  in 
him,  when  they  remember  the  March  days  in  E  in  and  the 
badge  of  their  opponents  in  the  Mainfield  campaign  in  1866. 

The  Chief  afterwards  said,  that  peace  was  still  far  off.  "  If 
they  go  to  Orleans  we  shall  follow  them,  even  if  they  go  fur- 
ther still,  to  the  sea."  He  then  read  out  the  telegrams  which 
had  been  received,  and  among  them  the  list  of  the  troops  in 
Paris  ;  "  they  are  said  to  amount  to  180,000  men,  but  there  are 
scarcely  60,000  real  soldiers  among  them.  The  Mobile  Guards 
and   National  Guards,  with  their  snufi'-boxes,  are  not   worth 


Tahle  Talk.  105' 

counting."  The  conversation  then  turned  for  a  time  on  mat- 
ters of  the  table,  and  it  was  said  among  other  things  that 
Alexander  von  Humboldt,  the  ideal  man  of  our  democracy^ 
was  an  enormous  eater,  who,  at  Court,  heaped  on  his  plate 
whole  mountains  of  lobster  salad  and  other  indigestible  deli- 
cacies and  then  swallowed  them  do^vTi."  At  the  last  course  we 
had  roast  hare,  and  the  Chief  remarked,  "  This  French  thing  is 
not  to  be  compared  with  our  Pomeranian  hare  ;  it  has  no  game 
flavor.  How  different  is  our  hare,  which  gets  its  fine  flavor 
from  the  heath  and  thyme  on  which  it  feeds." 

About  half-past  ten  he  sent  to  inquire  whether  any  one  was 
still  at  tea.  He  was  told,  "Doctor  Busch."  He  came,  drank 
two  cups  of  tea,  with  a  little  cognac,  which  he  rightly  consider- 
ed wholesome  when  it  is  good,  and  ate,  contrary  to  his  usual 
habit,  some  cold  meat.  He  afterwards  took  away  with  him  a 
bottle  of  cold  tea,  which  he  seems  to  like  to  drink  in  the  night, 
for  I  have  often,  during  the  campaign,  seen  it  in  the  morning 
on  his  night-table.  He  remained  till  after  mid-night,  and  for 
the  first  time  we  were  alone.  After  a  time  he  asked  where  I 
was  born.  I  answered,  in  Dresden.  Which  town  did  I  like 
best  %  Of  course  my  native  town  1  I  replied  rather  decidedly 
in  the  negative,  and  said  that,  next  to  Berlin,  Leipzig  was 
the  town  which  suited  me  best.  He  answered,  smiling, 
•■  Really  ;  I  should  not  have  thought  that ;  Dresden  is  such  a 
beautiful  city,"  I  then  told  him  the  chief  reason  why,  in  spite 
of  that,  it  did  not  please  me.     He  was  silent  for  a  little. 

I  asked  whether  I  should  telegraph  that  some  here  think 
they  have  heard  the  firing  of  cannons  and  rifles  in  the  streets 
of  Paris.  "  Yes,"  he  ^id,  "  do  so."  "  But  not  at-out  the 
conference  with  Favre  1  "  "  Surely,"  and  then  he  continued, 
"  Haute  liaison,  near — what  do  you  call  it  ?  Montry  the 
first  time,  then  at  Ferrieres  the  same  evening,  the  second, 
then  a  third  interview  the  next  day  but  one,  but  with  no  re- 
sult, either  as  regards  an  armistice  or  peace.  Negotiations- 
with  us  have  also  been  attempted  on  the  part  of  some  of  the 
other  French  parties,"  to  svhich  he  added  some  remarks? 
leading  me  to  infer  that  he  was  alluding  to  the  Empress 
Eugenie. 

The  Chief  praised  the  red  wine  standing  on  the  table,  from 

the  Baron's  cellars,  and  drank  a  glass  of  it..     He  then  again 

complained  of  the  behavior  of  Eoth.schild,  and  thought  the  old 

bai'on  had  better  manners.     I  spoke  of  the  crowds  of  pheasants 

8 


106        Bismarch  in  the  Franco-German  War. 

in  the  park.  Could  -vre  not  have  a  shot  at  them  ?  "  H'm,"  he 
said  ;  "  it  is  forbidden  to  shoot  in  the  park  ;  but  what  can  they 
do  if  I  go  out  and  get  some?  They  can't  arrest  me,  for  they 
would  have  no  one  to  see  after  the  peace."  He  afterwards 
talked  of  hunting  :  "  I  hunt  sometimes  with  the  King  at  Letz- 
lingen,  the  old  forest  of  our  family.  Burgstall,  too,  was  taken 
away  from  us  three  hundred  years  ago,  simply  on  account  of 
the  hunting.  At  that  time  there  was  nearly  twice  as  much 
wood  as  now.  It  was  then  worth  nothing  but  for  the  hunting  ; 
now  it  is  worth  millions.  .  .  .  The  indemnification  given  us 
was  ti-ifling,  not  a  fourth  part  of  the  value,  and  almost  all  of  it 
has  vanished  like  smoke." 

Another  time,  speaking  of  dexterity  in  shooting,  he  said 
that  _  when  he  was  a  young  man  he  was  such  a  good  shot  that 
he  could  hit  pieces  of  paper  at  a  hundred  paces,  and  had  shot 
the  heads  off  the  ducks  in  the  pond. 

He  remarked,  on  a  subject  to  which  he  often  recurred,  "If  I 
am  to  work  well  I  must  be  well  fed.  I  can  make  no  proper 
peace  if  they  don't  give  me  proper  food  and  drink.  That  is  part 
of  my  pay." 

The  conversation  turned — I  no  longer  remember  how — on 
the  ancient  languages.  "  When  I  was  in  the  highest  form  at 
school,  I  wrote  and  spoke  Latin  very  well.  Now  it  has  be- 
come difficult  to  me,  and  I  have  quite  forgotten  my  Greek.  I 
-don't  understand  why  people  spend  so  much  labor  on  them. 
Perhaps  merely  because  scholars  do  not  like  to  lessen  the  value 
of  what  they  themselves  acquired  with  so  much  difficulty."  I 
took  the  liberty  of  reminding  him  of  the  "mental  discipline," 
and  remarked  that  the  twenty  or  thirty  meanings  of  the  par- 
ticle dv  must  be  quite  delightful  to  those  who  have  them  at  their 
fingers'  ends.  The  Chief  replied,  "  Yes,  but  if  it  is  contended 
that  Greek  gives  the  '  mental  discipline,'  Russian  does  so  in  a 
still  higher  degree.  People  might  introduce  Russian  at  once 
instead  of  Greek  ;  there  would  be  immediate  practical  use  in 
that.  It  has  innumerable  niceties  to  make  up  for  the  incom- 
pleteness of  its  conjugation,  and  the  eight-and-twenty  declen- 
sions they  used  to  have  were  capital  for  the  memory.  Now, 
indeed,  they  have  only  three,  but  then  the  exceptions  are  all 
the  more  numerous.  And  how  the  roots  are  changed  ;  in  many 
words  only  a  single  letter  remains." 

We  spoke  of  the  treatment  of  the  Schleswi^-Holstein 
question  in  the  Diet  in  the  years  about   1850.     Count  Bis- 


The  Cigar  Story.  107 

marck-Bohlen,  who  had  joined  us,  remarked  that  it  must  have 
beengoodto  produce  sleep.  "  Yes,"  saidthe  Chief,  "in  Frankfort 
they  slept  over  negotiations  with  their  eyes  open.  Generally  a 
sleepy,  insipid  set,  only  suppoi-table  when  I  came  among  them 
like  so  much  pepper."  He  then  told  an  amusing  story  of  Covint 
Rechberg,  at  that  time  ambassador  of  the  Diet. 

I  asked  about  the  "  famous  "  cigar  story.  "  Which  do  you 
mean] "  "  When,  your  Excellency,  Rechberg  kept  on  smok- 
ing a  cigar  in  your  presence,  and  you  took  one  yourself."  "You 
mean  Thun.  Well,  that  was  simple  enough.  I  went  to  him, 
and  he  was  working  and  smoking  at  the  same  time.  He  beg- 
ged me  to  wait  a  moment.  I  did  wait  ;  but  when  it  seemed  too 
long,  and  he  offered  me  no  cigar,  I  took  out  one,  and  asked  him 
for  a  light,  which  he  gave  me  with  a  rather  astonished  look. 
But  there  is  another  story  of  the  same  kind.  At  the  sittings 
of  the  military  commission  when  Rochow  was  the  Prussian  re- 
presentative at  the  Diet,  Austria  alone  smoked.  Rochow,  who 
was  a  furious  smoker,  would  certainly  have  liked  to  do  it,  but 
did  not  venture.  When  I  succeeded  him,  I  too  hankered  after 
a  cigar  ;  and  as  I  did  not  see  why  I  should  not  have  it,  I  asked 
the  Power  in  the  President's  chair  to  give  me  a  light,  which 
seemed  to  give  him  and  the  other  gentlemen  both  astonishment 
and  displeasure.  It  was  evidently  an  event  for  them.  That 
time  only  Austria  and  Prussia  smoked.  But  the  other  gentle- 
men ob^-iously  thought  the  matter  so  serious  that  they  reported 
it  to  their  respective  Courts.  The  question  required  mature 
deliberation,  and  for  half  a  year  only  the  two  Great  Powers 
.smoked.  Then  Schrenkh,  the  Bavarian  envoy,  asserted  the 
dignity  of  his  position  by  smoking.  Nostitz,  the  Saxon,  had 
certainly  also  a  great  wish  to  do  so,  but  had  not  received 
authority  from  his  minister.  When,  however,  he  saw  Both- 
mer,  the  Hannoverian,  indulging  himself,  at  the  next  sitting, 
he  must — for  he  was  intensely  Austrian,  having  sons  in  the 
army — have  come  to  some  understanding  with  Rechberg  ;  for 
he  also  took  out  a  cigar  from  liis  case  and  puffed  away.  Only 
Wiirtemberg  and  Darmstadt  were  left,  and  they  did  not  smoke 
themselves.  But  the  honor  and  dignity  of  their  states  impera- 
tively required  it,  so  that  next  time  we  met,  Wiirtemberg  pro- 
duced a  cigar — I  see  it  now  ;  it  was  a  long  thin  light  yellow 
thing — and  smoked  at  least  half  of  it,  as  a  burnt-offering  for  the 
Fatherland." 

Friday,  September  23. — This  morning  the  weather  is  glori- 


108        Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War. 

ous  ;  and  after  eleven  o'clock  exceedingly  hot.  Before  the 
Chief  rose  I  took  a  ramble  in  the  park,  where,  on  the  left  of 
the  stream,  I  saw  a  large  herd  of  roe-deer  ;  and  further  on  a 
splendid  aviary,  in  the  spacious  wire-cages  of  which  there  were 
a  number  of  foreign  birds,  Chinese,  Japanese,  New  Zealand 
birds,  rare  pigeons,  gold  pheasants,  and  so  on,  and  a  quail- 
house.  When  I  returned  I  met  Keudell  in  the  passage. 
"  "War  ! "  he  cried.  "  A  letter  from  Favre,  who  rejects  all  our 
demands."  We  shall  prepare  this,  with  commentaries  on  it, 
for  the  press,  and  at  the  same  time  hint  that  the  present  inha- 
bitant of  Wilhelmshohe  is  after  all  not  so  bad,  and  that  he  may 
be  of  some  use  to  us  yet. 

Saturday,  September  2Jf. — The  Minister  was  led  to  speak  at 
dinner,  of  the  show  things  in  the  great  saloon  upstairs  which 
he  had  just  seen,  for  the  first  time.  Among  them,  we  heard, 
that  there  was  a  throne  or  table  which  had  casually  stuck  to 
the  fingers  of  some  French  marshal  or  general  in  China — or 
was  it  in  Cochin  China  % — and  which  had  been  afterwards  sold 
to  our  Baron,  a  remarkable  object  which  in  our  visit  to  the 
room  I  had  stupidly  not  observed.  The  opinions  of  the  Chief 
on  this  display  of  luxury  were  almost  the  same  as  those  which 
I  recorded  in  my  journal  two  days  ago  :  "  Everything  dear, 
but  little  that  is  beautiful,  and  still  less  comfortable."  He  then 
went  on  :  "A  property  like  this  finished  and  complete,  could 
•never  give  me  any  satisfaction.  Not  I  but  others  would  have 
made  it.  There  is  indeed  much  that  is  beautiful,  but  the 
satisfaction  of  creating  and  transforming  is  wanting.  It  is  quite 
different  when  I  have  to  ask  myself.  Can  I  spend  five  or  ten 
thousand  dollars  upon  this  or  that  improvement  ?  to  what  it 
must  be  when  one  has  not  to  think  about  money.  To  have 
always  enough  and  more  than  enough  must  at  last  be  weari- 
some." To-day  we  had  pheasants  (not  truffled),  and  our  wine 
proved  that  the  enlightenment  and  improvement  of  the  house- 
steward's  inner  man  had  made  considerable  progress.  Further, 
the  chief  purveyor  of  the  mobilised  Foreign-office — which 
honorable  post  was  filled  by  the  Count  Bismarck-Bohlen — an- 
nounced that  some  benevolent  Berlin  friend  had  sent  the  Chief 
a  present  of  four  bottles  of  curacao,  of  which  a  trial  was  made. 

The  Chancellor  asked  :  "  Do  you  know f  I  did   not  catch 

the  name.  "Yes."  "Well,  telegi-aph  to  him:  'Old  Nord- 
hauser  quite  indispensable  at  headquarters,  two  jars  immedi- 
f.tcly. ' "     Afterwards  the  subject  of  conversation  at  table  was, 


The  Honesty  of  the  Jews.  109 

the  position  of  owners  of  estates  ;  when  the  Minister  spoke  of 
the  former  and  present  condition  of  an  estate  at  Schmoldin,  and 
expressed  himself  warmly  as  to  the  care  the  landlords  ought  to 
show  for  the  people  under  them. 

In  the  evening  it  was  again  thought  ad^-isable  to  make  some 
communication  in  an  article  to  our  good  friends  the  French 
Ultramontanes,  who  in  war,  as  formerly  in  peace,  put  forth  all 
their  strength  against  the  German  cause,  exciting  the  people 
against  us,  spreading  abroad  lies  about  us  in  the  newspaper, 
and  stirring  up  the  peasants  to  join  in  the  war,  as  they  did  at 
Beaumont  and  Bazeilles. 

Sunday,  September  25. — Quite  an  off  day.  Nothing  of  im- 
portance to  record.  The  Chief  went  to  church  in  the  morning 
with  the  King,  and  in  the  afternoon  he  did  not  appear.  Per- 
haps he  has  some  important  thing  specially  on  hand. 

At  dinner  there  was  some  talk  about  the  Jews.  "  They 
have  still  really  no  true  home,"  said  the  Chief ;  "  but  are  a  sort 
of  universal-European,  cosmopolitan  nomads.  Their  fatherland 
is  Zion,"  (to  Abeken)  "  Jerusalem.  Otherwise  they  belongto  the 
whole  world,  and  hang  together  throughout  the  whole  world.  It 
is  only  the  Jew  child  that  ha-s  a  Kttle  home  feeling.  But  there 
are  good  honest  people  amongst  them.  There  was  one  near  us 
in  Pomerania,  who  dealt  in  skins  and  such-like  articles.  But, 
for  once,  this  did  not  succeed,  and  he  was  bankrupt.  Then  he 
came  to  me  and  begged  me  to  help  him,  and  not  bring  forward 
my  claim  ;  he  would  repay  me  as  soon  as  he  could,  bit  by  bit. 
For  old  acquaintance'  sake,  I  agreed,  and  he  really  paid  me. 
Even  when  I  was  at  Frankfort  as  Envoy,  I  had  remittances 
from  him,  and  I  believe  that  I  lost  less  than  the  others.  Per- 
haps there  are  not  many  such  Jews  now.  But  they  have  their 
\-ii-tues ;  respect  for  their  parents,  fidelity  in  marriage,  and 
charitableness." 

Moivlay,  September  26. — Early  this  morning  I  worked  for 
the  press  on  different  lines.  At  dinner,  the  King's  physician, 
Dr.  Lauer,  was  present.  The  conversation  turned  for  some  time 
on  culinary  and  gastronomical  matters.  In  the  course  of  this 
we  learnt  that  cherries  are  the  Chancellor's  favorite  fruit,  and 
next  to  them  large  blue  plums,  called  '■^  Bauernpjlaume.'"  The 
four  carp,  which  formed  one  of  the  courses  at  dinner,  led  the  Chief 
to  speak  of  the  carp's  place  among  eatable  fish,  on  which  point 
he  expressed  himself  very  fully.  Among  freshwater  fish  he 
gave  the  first  place  to  Marctnen,   not    to  be  confounded  with 


110        Bismarck  in  the  Franco-Gemian  War. 

Murctnen,  and  to  trout,  of  which  last  he  had  some,  very  fine,  in 
the  streams  about  Varzin.  Of  the  large  trout  which  are  so 
prominent  in  banquets  at  Frankfort-on-the-Main,  he  thought 
very  little.  He  preferred  sea-fish,  and  among  them  all  he 
placed  the  cod  first.  "A  good  smoked  flounder  is  not  at  all 
bad,  and  even  the  common  herring  is  not  to  be  despised  when  it 
is  perfectly  fresh."  Oysters  were  discussed,  and  he  said,  "■  In 
my  young  days,  when  I  lived  at  Aachen,  I  conferred  a  benefit 
on  the  inhabitants  such  as  Ceres  did  when  she  revealed  the  art 
of  agriculture  to  mankind  :  in  fact,  I  taught  them  how  to  roast 
oysters. "  Lauer  begged  for  the  recipe,  and  he  got  it.  If  I  under- 
stood rightly,  the  fish  was  strewn  with  bread  crumbs  and  Parme- 
san cheese,  and  roasted  in  its  shell  on  a  coal  fire.  I  stuck  quietly 
to  my  own  opinion  that  the  oyster  and  cooking  have  nothing  to 
do  with  each  other.  Fresh  and  nothing  with  them,  that  ig  the 
only  true  recipe.  The  Chief  then  spoke  as  a  thorough  connois- 
seur of  wild  fruits,  bilberries,  whortle-berries,*  and  moss-berries, 
%fid  of  the  numerous  tribe  of  mushrooms,  of  which  he  had 
eaten  many  in  Finland,  of  kinds  not  known  among  us,  but  ex- 
cellent. Then  he  spoke  of  eating  in  general,  and  said  jocularly, 
"  In  our  family  we  are  all  great  eaters.  If  there  were  many  in 
the  country  with  such  a  capacity,  the  state  could  not  exist,  I 
should  emigrate."  I  remembered  that  Frederick  the  Great  had 
done  great  things  in  the  same  line. 

The  conversation  then  turned  on  military  matters,  and  the 
Minister  said  that  the  Uhlans  were  still  the  best  cavalry.  The 
lance  gave  the  man  great  confidence.  It  is  said  that  it  is 
troublesome  among  trees,  but  that  is  a  mistake.  It  is  very 
useful  in  moving  aside  the  branches.  He  knew  this  from  hia 
own  experience,  having  served  first  with  the  rifles  and  after- 
wards with  the  Landwehr  Lance  Cavalry.  The  abolition  of 
the  lance  in  all  the  cavalry  of  the  Landwehr  was  a  mistake. 
The  bent  sabre,  especially  when  it  is  badly  ground,  is  of  very 
little  use.  The  straight  cut-and-thrust  sword  is  much  more 
practical. 

After  dinner  there  came  in  a  letter  from  Favre,  in  which  he 
asked,  first,  that  due  notice  should  be  given  of  the  bombard- 
ment of  Paris,  in  order  that  the  diplomatic  body  might  have 
time  to  get  away  :  secondly,  that  correspondence  with  the  outer 
world  should  be  permitted  them  by  means  of  letters.  When 
he  came  doAvn  from  the  Chief  with  the  letter,  Abeken  said  that 
he  meant  to  answer  it   by   way   of   Brussels.     "  Then,"  said 


Diplomatic  Papers  to  he  ivritten  in  German.     Ill 

Keudell,  "  the  letter  will  reach  its  destination  late,  or,  perhaps 
not  at  all :  it  will  come  back  to  ns."  "  That  does  not  matter," 
replied  Abeken.  .  .  .  The  King  wishes  to  see  newspapers,  and 
the  most  important  things  are  to  be  marked  for  him.  The 
Chief  proposed  to  him  the  Nord-Dexdzche  Allgemeine  Zeitung, 
and  I  am  to  attend  to  the  marking  and  to  send  up  the  numbers 
to  the  ^Minister, 

In  the  evening  I  am  several  times  called  up  to  the  Chief  to 
receive  my  orders.  I  learn  that  "Favre's  account  of  his  conver- 
.sations  with  the  Chancellor  shows  an  anxiety  to  be  truthful, 
but  at  the  same  time  is  not  quite  exact,  which  under  the  cir- 
cumstances, and  considering  that  it  is  a  report  of  three  conver- 
sations, is  not  to  be  wondered  at.  "  In  particular  the  question 
of  an  armistice  is  put  in  the  back-ground,  whereas  in  reality 
it  was  the  prominent  question.  There  was  no  talk  of  Soissons, 
but  of  Saargemiind.  Favre  was  prepared  for  a  considerable 
pecuniary  indemnity.  The  question  of  a  truce  hung  upon  two 
alternatives ;  either  the  surrender  to  us  of  the  portion  of  the 
fortifications  of  Paris  dominating  the  city,  the  Parisians  having 
free  intercourse  with  the  outer  world ;  or,  the  surrender  of  Strass- 
burg  and  Toul.  We  claimed  the  latter,  because  in  the  hands 
of  the  French  it  threatens  our  supplies.  Upon  the  cession  of 
territory,  on  the  conclusion  of  peace,  the  Chancellor  spoke  to 
the  efiect  that  he  could  only  explain  himself  on  the  ques- 
tion of  the  frontiers  after  the  principle  was  accepted.  Then, 
when  Fa\Te  asked  for  some  indication  at  least  of  our  demands 
in  this  respect  it  was  remarked  to  him  that  we  needed  Strass- 
burg,  "the  key  to  our  house,"  and  the  Departments  of  the 
Upper  and  Lower  Rhine,  also  Metz  and  a  part  of  the  Moselle 
Department  for  our  security  in  the  future.  The  Armistice 
was  to  enable  the  French  National  Assembly  to  be  consulted. 

After  dinner  great  news  arrives :  Rome  is  occupied  by  the 
Italians,  while  the  Pope  and  the  diplomatists  remain  in  the 
Vatican. 

Tuesday,  September  27th. — Bulsing  showed  me,  by  order  of 
the  Chief,  his  answer  to  Favres  letter  which  he  had  re- written 
and  made  shorter  and  firmer.  It  said  with  respect  to  the  first 
point :  A  notice  beforehand  is  not  the  usage  of  war  ;  and  as  to 
the  second,  a  beleaguered  fortress  does  not  appear  to  be  an  ap- 
propriate position  for  diplomatists.  We  shall  allow  open 
letters,  containing  nothing  objectionable,  to  pass  through.  In 
this  view  of  things  we  hope  to  have  the  concurrency  of.  the 


112        Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War. 

diplomatic  corps.  This  body  may  indeed  go  to  Tours,  where 
we  hear  that  the  French  Government  intends  to  go.  The 
answer  was  wi-itten  in  German,  a  practice  which  Bernstorff  had 
begun,  but  which  Bismarck  has  carried  out  more  persistently. 
In  earlier  days,  so  Bolsing  says,  most  of  the  secretaries  in  the 
foreign  office  belonged  to  the  French  colony,  of  which  Roland 
and  Delacroix  still  survive,  and  almost  every  business  was 
transacted,  even  by  the  councillors,  in  French.  Even  the  regis- 
ters of  exports  and  imports  were  kept  in  French.  Ambassa- 
dors usually  sent  in  their  reports  in  French.  Now  the  language 
of  those  "  vile  Gauls,"  as  Count  Bohlen  calls  the  French,  is 
only  used  exceptionally — for  instance,  to  those  Governments 
and  ambassadors  whose  mother-tongue  we  cannot  read  fluently 
— but  the  registers  for  years  past  have  been  kept  in  Ger- 
man. 

At  dinner  Prince  Eadziwill,  and  Knobelsdorff  of  the  general 
staff,  were  present.  We  were  speaking  of  the  passage  in 
Favre's  account  of  his  negotiations  with  the  Chief,  where  he  is 
said  to  have  wept.  "  It  is  true,"  said  the  Minister.  "  He 
seemed  crying,  and  I  endeavored  in  a  fashion  to  console  him ; 
but  when  I  looked  a  little  closer,  I  positively  believe  that  he 
had  not  shed  a  tear.  He  intended,  probably,  to  work  upon 
my  feelings  with  a  little  theatrical  performance,  as  the  Parisian 
advocates  work  upon  their  public.  I  am  almost  convinced  that 
at  Ferrieres,  too,  he  was  painted  white,  especially  the  second 
time.  That  morning  in  his  part  of  the  injured  and  much- 
suffering  man  he  looked  much  greyer  than  he  did  before.  It  is 
possible,  of  course,  that  he  feels  all  this  ;  but  he  is  no  poli- 
tician. He  ought  to  know  that  bursts  of  feeling  are  out  of 
place  in  politics."  After  a  little  while  the  Minister  went  on  : 
*"  When  I  dropped  a  word  about  Strassburg  and  Metz,  he  made 
a  face  as  if  he  thought  I  were  joking.  I  should  like  to  have 
1  old  him  what  the  great  Kiirschner  once  said  to  me  in  Berlin. 
I  went  to  his  shop  with  my  wife  to  ask  the  price  of  a  fur 
-cloak,  and  when  he  mentioned  a  high  price  for  one  that  pleased 
Tue,  I  said,  '  You  are  joking  !'  *  No,'  he  replied  ;  *  in  business, 
never.' " 

Later  in  the  evening  the  American  General  Burnside  was 
announced.  The  Chief  answered  that  he  was  now  at  dinner 
and  v,rished  the  General  would  be  so  kind  as  to  call  again — 
*'In  an  hour  or  two?"  "Ah  !  as  far  as  I  am  concerned,  in 
half  an  hour."     Then  he  asked  me,  "  Now,  Doctor  Busch,  who 


General  BurnsicU.  113 

is  this  man  ]"  I  said,  "  A  very  prominent  General  in  the  Civil 
War,  and,  after  Grant  and  Sherman,  lea^"ing  the  Confederate 
generals  out  of  account,  the  most  important." 

We  then  spoke  of  the  occupation  of  Rome  and  of  the  Pope 
in  the  Vatican ;  and  the  Chief  said  of  the  Pope,  "  Yes ; 
sovereign  he  must  remain,  only  we  are  obliged  to  ask  how.  We 
should  be  able  to  do  much  more  for  him  if  the  Ultramontanes 
were  not  always  so  active  against  us.  It  is  my  custom  to  pay 
people  back  in  their  own  coin."  "  I  should  like  to  know,  too, 
how  our  Harry  (von  Arnim,  the  North-German  Ambassador  at 
the  Papal  Court)  finds  himself  nowl  Probably  to-day  so,  in 
the  evening,  so,  and  in  the  morning  again  something  quite  dif- 
ferent, like  his  reports.  He  would  be  too  much  of  an  ambas- 
sador for  a  small  sovereign,  but  the  Pope  is  not  merely  the 
Prince  of  the  States  of  the  Church ;  he  is  the  head  of  the 
Catholic  Church." 

After  dinner,  as  we  were  having  our  coffee,  Bumside  came 
with  an  older  gentleman,  who  wore  a  red  flannel  shirt  and  a 
paper  collar.  The  general  is  a  rather  tall,  well-made  man,  with 
thick  bushy  eyebrows,  and  singularly  fine  white  teeth.  "With 
his  precisely-trimmed  short  cropped  King  William'*  beard,  he 
might  have  been  taken  for  an  elderly  Prussian  major  in  plain 
clothes.  The  Chief  sat  with  him  on  the  sofa  to  the  left  of  the 
window  in  the  dining-room,  and  had  an  animated  conversation 
with  him  in  English  over  a  glass  of  Kirsch-wasser  (cherry 
cordial),  which  was  rej^enished  after  a  little.  Meantime  Prince 
Padzimll  talked  with  the  other  gentleman.  When  the  Minis- 
ter remarked  to  his  visitor  that  he  was  rather  late  in  coming  to 
the  campaign,  and  Bumside  had  explained  why,  the  Minster 
told  him  that  in  July  we  had  not  had,  neither  the  King  nor 
the  people,  the  slightest  intention  of  war,  and  when  we  were 
surprised  wtih  the  declaration  of  war,  had  not  a  thought  of 
conquests.  Our  army  is  excellent  for  a  war  of  defenoe,  but 
not  easy  to  use  for  plans  of  conquest,  for  the  army  is  the  peo- 
ple, and  the  people  are  not  desirous  of  glory.  They  need,  and 
they  wish,  peace.  That  is  why  the  press,  which  is  the  voice  of 
the  people,  now  demands  a  better  frontier.  Fr  peace'  sake  we 
must  now,  in  presence  of  an  ambitious  people,  greedy  of  con- 
quest, think  of  our  security  for  the  future,  and  w^e  can  only 
find  it  in  a  better  defensive  position  than  we  have  at  present. 
Bumside  appeared  to  see  this,  and  was  emphatic  in  praising 
our  excellent  organization  and  the  heroism  of  our  troops. 


114        Bismarck  in  the  Franco- GerTiis.n  War. 

Weditesday,  September  28. — About  twelve  o'clock  I  wished 
to  see  the  Minister,  in  order  to  ask  him  a  question.  In  the 
ante-room  I  was  told  that  he  was  not  at  home.  "  Has  he  ridden 
out,  then  V  "  No ;  the  gentlemen  are  shooting  a  few  pheas- 
ants. Engel  was  to  go  after  them."  "  Have  they  taken  their 
guns  T  "  No,  but  Podbielski  sent  them  on  before."  The 
Chief  came  back  about  two  o'clock,  and  he  and  Moltke  and 
Podbielski  had  been  shooting,  not  in  the  park,  but  in  the  woods 
to  the  north  and  north-east  of  it,  but,  as  it  seemed,  with  little 
success.  At  dinner,  when  Count  Lehndorff,  and  Landrath 
Count  Fiirstenstein,  in  the  uniform  )f  a  light-blue  dragoon,  with 
yellow  collar,  and  a  Herr  von  Katt  \vere  our  guests — of  whom 
the  two  latter  were  to  be  prefects  in  the  conquered  French  dis- 
tricts— the  Chief  told  us  that  the  spo  't  in  the  morning  had  not 
been  very  successful,  which  he  attribited  to  some  fault  in  the 
cartridges.  He  had  killed  only  one  pheasant,  and  had  wounded 
three  or  four  others,  but  had  not  got  them.  He  said  that  when 
he  had  been  here  before  he  had  done  better,  at  least  with  the 
pheasants ;  with  the  other  game,  however,  it  had  not  been  so. 
With  Dietze,  in  Magdeburg,  he  had  once,  in  five  or  six  hours, 
shot  a  hundred  and  sixty  hares.  After  the  sport  was  over  he 
had  been  with  Moltke,  where  he  had  tasted  a  new  kind  of 
drink,  a  sort  of  punch  made  with  champagne,  hot  tea,  and 
sherry,  which,  if  I  heard  rightly,  was  an  invention  of  the  greav 
general, — the  man  who  thinks  battles. 

Graver  conversation  followed.  The  Chancellor  complained 
first,  that  Yoigts-Rhetz  had  said  nothing  in  his  report  about  the 
brilliant  charge  of  the  two  regiments  of  dragoon-guards  at  Mars- 
la-To,ur,  which  he  himself  suggested,  and  which  had  saved 
the  Tenth  Army  Corps.  "  It  v/as  a  necessity,  I  must  admit,  but 
he  should  not  have  passed  it  over  in  silence."  He  then  began 
a  longer  discourse  suggested,  as  to  the  image  which  started 
him  off,  by  a  spot  of  grease  on  the  table-cloth,  and  which  at 
last  assumed  the  character  of  a  dialogue  between  the  Ministei 
and  Katt.  After  remarking  that  the  feeling  that  it  is  noble  to 
die  for  honor  and  the  Fatherland,  even  without  recognition,  is 
among  us  Germans  spreading  through  the  nation  more  and 
more,  Katt  went  on  to  say:  "The  non-commissioned  officer  has 
essentially  the  same  view  and  the  same  feeling  of  duty  as  the 
lieutenant  and  the  colonel.  With  us  this  runs  through  every 
stratum  of  the  nation."  "  The  French  are  a  mass  easily  brougl-' 
under  the  influence  of  one  leader,  and  are  then  very  powerful 


The  Chancellors  Faith.  115 

With  us,  every  one  has  his  own  opinion ;  and  wdth  Ger- 
mans it  is  a  great  step  gained  when  any  considerable  number 
of  them  hold  the  same  opinion — if  they  all  did  so,  they  would 
be  omnipotent."  "  The  feeling  of  duty  in  a  man  who  submits 
to  be  shot  dead,  alone,  in  the  dark  "  (he  meant,  no  doubt, 
without  thinking  of  reward  and  honor  for  steadfastly  sticking 
without  fear  and  without  hope  to  the  post  assigned  to  him), 
"  the  French  have  not.  It  is  due  to  what  is  left  of  belief  in 
our  people  ;  from  the  fact,  that  I  know  that  there  is  Some  One 
who  sees  me,  when  the  lieutenant  does  not  see  me."  "  D.o  you 
believe,  your  Excellency,  that  they  really  reflect  on  this?' 
asked  Fiirstenstein.  "  Reflect — no,  it  is  a  feeling,  a  tone,  an 
instinct,  I  believe.  If  they  reflect,  they  lose  it.  Then  they 
talk  themselves  out  of  it "  .  .  .  "  How,  without  faith  in  a  re- 
vealed religion,  in  a  God,  who  wills  what  is  good,  in  a  Supreme 
Judge,  and  a  future  life,  men  can  live  together  harmoniously — 
each  doing  his  duty  and  letting  every  one  else  do  his — I  do  not 
understand."  "  If  I  vfere  no  longer  a  Christian  I  would  not 
remain  for  an  hour  at  my  post.  If  I  could  not  count  upon  my 
God,  assuredly  I  should  not  do  so  on  earthly  masters.  Of 
course  I  should  have  to  live,  and  I  should  be  in  a  good  enough 
position."  "  Why  should  I  disturb  myself  and  work  unceas- 
ingly in  this  world,  exposing  myself  to  all  sorts  of  vexations,  if 
I  had  not  the  feeling  that  I  must  do  my  duty  for  God's  sake  ? 
If  I  did  not  believe  in  a  divine  order  which  has  destined  this 
German  nation  for  something  good  and  great,  I  would  at  once 
give  up  the  business  of  a  diplomatist,  or  I  would  not  have 
undertaken  it.  Orders  and  titles  have  no  charm  for  me."  .  .  . 
"  I  owe  the  firmness  which  I  have  sho^vn  for  ten  years  against 
all  possible  absurdities  only  to  my  decided  faith.  Take  from 
me  this  faith  and  you  take  from  me  my  Fatherland.  If  I  were 
not  a  good  belie\dng  Christian,  if  I  had  not  the  -supernatural 
basis  of  religion,  you  would  not  have  had  such  a  Chancellor. 
.  .  ,  Get  me  a  successor  on  the  same  basis  and  I  give  up  at 
once — but  I  live  among  heathens.  When  I  say  this  I  don't 
want  to  make  proselytes,  but  I  am  obliged  to  confess  my  faith." 
"  But  the  ancients,"  said  Katt ;  "  surely  the  Greeks  displayed 
self-denial  and  devotion,  surely  they  had  a  love  for  their  coun- 
try, and  did  great  things  with  it ;"  and  he  was  convinced  "that 
many  people  now  do  the  same  thing  from  patriotic  feeling  and 
the  consciousness  of  belonging  to  a  great  unity."  The  Chief 
replied,  "  This  self-denial  and  devotion  to  duty,  to  the  State, 


116        Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War. 

and  to  the  King,  is  only  the  survival  of  the  faith  of  our  fathers 
and  gi*andfathers  transformed — indistinct  and  yet  active  ;  faith 
and  yet  faith  no  longer."  ..."  How  willingly  I  should  be  off. 
I  delight  in  country  life,  in  the  woods,  and  in  nature.  .  .  . 
Take  from  me  my  relation  to  God,  and  I  am  the  man  who  will 
pack  up  to-morrow  and  be  off  to  Yarzin  to  grow  my  oats." 
( Vide  note  at  end  of  chapter.) 

Friday,  September  30. — Another  letter  received  from  B.  in 
B.,  who  continues  to  employ  his  talent  and  influence  to  express 
the  Chancellor's  views  in  the  papers.  He  was  asked  in  answer 
to  make  a  stand  against  the  absurdity  some  German  journalists 
are  falling  into,  who  while  we  are  at  war,  and  scarcely  out  of 
the  very  thickest  of  it,  prate  so  zealously  about  moderation. 
These  gentlemen  are  very  free  with  their  advice  as  to  how  far 
we  Germans  may  go  in  our  demands,  and  plead  in  favor  of 
France,  when  they  would  show  far  more  wisdom  by  pitching 
our  demands  high.  "By  doing  this,"  said  the  Minister,  Avhen 
he  complained  of  these  articles,  "  we  shall  get  at  least  what  is 
fair,  though  not  everything  we  want.  They  will  force  me  yet 
to  demand  the  Line  of  the  Meuse." 

The  great  people  are  having  a  feast  to-day.  They  keep,  it  is 
said,  the  Queen's  birthday.  We  have  again  heard  shots  from 
the  neighborhood  of  Paris,  and  in  the  evening  the  Chief  allowed 
me  to  telegraph  the  news  with  the  addition  that  a  sortie  liad 
taken  place,  and  that  the  French  had  been  driven  with  great 
loss  and  in  wild  disorder  Imck  into  the  city. 

Stmday,  October  2. — Count  Bill  came  to  visit  his  father. 
Early  in  the  morning  I  dispatched  a  telegram,  and  in  the  even- 
ing two  articles.     Not  much  else  to  be  noted  to-day. 

But — at  tea  Hatzfeld  mentioned  that  he  had  visited  our 
neighbor  at  Guernant  on  the  road  to  Lagny,  and  that  the  pro- 
prietor, the  Marquis  Tolosan  or  d'Olossan,  a  comfortable, 
paunchy  gentleman,  had  complained  of  the  people  quartered  on 
him.  The  Prussians,  he  said,  were  charming,  but  the  Wiir- 
tembergers  were  quite  too  familiar.  No  sooner  had  they 
entered  his  house  than  they  had  slapped  him  on  the  stomach, 
saying,  "A  splendid  coi-poration."  They  made  continual 
demands.  He  had  given  them  four  thousand  bottles  of  Bor- 
deaux and  the  keys  of  his  cellar,  and  yet  they  were  always 
looking  about  as  if  more  were  concealed.  He  had  given  them 
two  out  of  the  three  carriages  in  his  coach-house,  and  only 
wanted  to  keep  quite  a  little  one  for  himself,  which  he  much 


Russian  Life.  117 

needed  as  it  was  difficult  for  him  to  get  about.  But  they  had 
taken  even  that  carriage  out  for  the  whole  day,  and  when  he 
remonstrated  they  laughed,  and  said  it  was  always  the  way  in 
war. 

The  conversation  then  turned  upon  Russia  and  the  commun- 
istic partition  of  land  which  exists  there  among  the  village 
communities,  and  upon  the  families  of  the  smaller  nobility,  who 
used  to  lay  out  their  savings  in  buying  serfs,  extorting  rent  from 
them  in  the  shape  of  obrok*  and  of  the  incredible  riches  of  many 
of  the  old  Boyard  families.  The  Chief  quoted  many  examples, 
and  spoke  at  length  of  the  Jussupows,  whose  property,  although 
it  had  l)een  several  times  half  confiscated  in  puni.shment  for 
their  conspiracies,  was  yet  far  greater  than  that  of  most  German 
princes,  and  had  borne,  "without  noticing  the  fact,  two  serfs 
who  acted  SKi  managers,  draining  three  millions  from  it  during 
their  time  of  service.  The  palace  of  the  prince  in  St.  Peters- 
burg contains  a  large  theatre,  a  ball  room  in  the  style  of  the 
White  drawing-room  in  the  palace  at  Berlin,  and  magnificent 
halls  in  which  three  or  four  hundred  persons  can  comfortably 
dine.  Old  Jussupow,  twenty  years  ago,  kept  open  house  every 
day.  A  poor  old  retired  officer  had  dined  for  many  years  in 
the  house  daily  without  their  knowing  who  he  was.  Once  he 
stayed  away  a  longer  time  than  usual  and  they  inquired  after 
him  from  the  police,  when  they  learned  the  name  and  condition 
of  their  guest  of  many  years'  standing. 

Monday,  October  3. — Except  for  my  journal,  to-day  was  for 
me  a  dies  sine  linea,  for  the  Minister  was  invisi^^le  both  before 
and  after  dinner.  At  dinner,  at  which  were  Marshal  of  the 
Household  Perponcher  and  a  Herr  von  Thadden,  who  was 
designated  as  a  member  of  the  administration  in  Reims,  the 
Chief  told  several  good  anecdotes  of  old  Rothschild  in  Frank- 
fort. On  one  occasion  he  had  spoken  in  his  presence  with  a 
coni  merchant  about  a  sale  of  Avheat,  when  the  merchant  said 
to  Rothschild  that  being  so  rich  a  man  he  Avould  never  think 
it  necessary  to  put  the  highest  price  on  his  wheat.  "  What 
rich  man  do  you  mean  f  replied  the  old  gentleman.  "  Is  my 
wheat  worth  less  because  I  am  a  rich  man  ]"  "He  used  to  give 
dinners  sometimes  which  were  quite  worthy  of  his  great  riches. 

•  The  obroi  was  a  rent  levied  by  the  proprietor,  not  on  the  tenants  of  indi« 
▼idual  farms  biit  on  the  whole  communities.  The  institution  was  common 
between  1830  and  1863,  when  the  serf*  were  emancipated. 


118        Bismarck  in  the  Franco-Ger-man  War. 

I  remember  once  when  the  present  King  was  in  Frankfort  I 
invited  him  to  dinner.  Later  in  the  same  day  Rothschild  also 
asked  his  Majesty  to  dine  with  him,  to  which  the  King  replied, 
that  he  must  settle  matters  with  me,  that  for  his  own  part  he 
did  not  care  with  which  of  us  he  dined.  The  Baron  now  came 
and  proposed  that  I  should  cede  his  Royal  Highness  to  him 
and  that  I  should  join  them  at  dinner.  I  refused  this,  but  he 
had  the  naivete  to  suggest  that  his  dinner  might  be  sent  to  my 
house,  although  he  could  not  eat  with  us,  as  he  only  partook 
of  strictly  Jewish  fare.  This  proposal  also  I  begged  leave  to 
declinfe — naturally,  though  his  dinner  doubtless  was  better  than 
mine."  Old  Metternich,  who,  by  the  way,  was  very  kind  to 
mo,  told  me  that  once  when  he  had  been  visiting  Rothschild, 
the  Baron  gave  him  some  luncheon  to  eat  on  the  way  back  to 
Johannisberg,  with  which  there  were  packed  six  bottles  of 
Johannisberg  wine.  When  they  reached  Johannisberg  (Met- 
ternich's  estate)  these  bottles  were  taken  out  unopened.  The 
Prince  then  sent  for  his  wine  steward,  and  inquired  how  much 
that  wine  cost  him  a  bottle.  "  Twelve  gulden,"  was  the 
answer.  '*  Well,  take  those  bottles,  and  the  next  order  you 
get  from  Baron  Rothschild  send  them  back  to  him,  but  charge 
him  fifteen  gulden,  for  they  will  then  be  older." 

Note. — Compare  the  discourse  of  Herr  von  Bismarck  on  June  15, 1847,  in 
the  United  Diet.  He  said,  "I  am  of  opinion  that  the  idea  of  the  Christian 
state  is  as  old  as  the  ci-devant  Holy  Koman  Empire,  as  old  as  the  whole 
group  of  European  states,  that  it  is  the  very  ground  in  which  these  states 
struck  their  roots,  and  that  every  state  which  wishes  to  secure  its  own  per- 
manence, or  to  justify  its  existence,  must  rest  on  a  religious  basis.  The 
words,  'By  the  Grace  of  God,'  which  Christian  sovereigns  usually  put  after 
their  names,  are,  for  me,  no  empty  words.  I  see  in  them  the  confession 
that  these  pi-inces  are  to  bear  the  sceptre  put  into  their  hands  on  earth  by 
God,  in  accordance  with  His  will.  I  can  only  recognize  as  God's  will  what 
is  revealed  in  the  Christian  Gosjjels,  and  I  believe  myself  justified  in  calling 
a.  state  Christian  when  it  imposes  on  itself  the  mission  of  realizing  the  teaching 
of  Christianity.  "We  can  recognize  nothing  but  Christianity  as  the  religious 
principle  of  the  state.  Take  it  away,  and  the  state  is  nothing  better  than  a 
casual  aggregate  of  rights,  a  sort  of  bulwark  against  a  war  of  everyone 
against  everyone  else,  a  conception  familiar  to  ancient  philosophy.  Its 
legislation  will  not  derive  a  regenerating  power  from  the  fountain  of  eternal 
truth.  It  will  fashion  itself  according  to  the  vague  and  uncertain  cifnception 
of  Humanity  as  it  is  found  in  the  minds  of  the  men  at  the  head  of  affairs. 
I  cannot  see  how  such  states  can  combat  the  ideas — e.g.,  of  the  Communists 
on  the  immorality  of  property,  or  the  high  moral  value  of  theft,  as  an  at- 
tempt to  restore  the  inborn  right  of  the  individual  man  to  make  himself  some- 
thing, when  he  feels  conscious  of  the  power  to  do  so.  These  ideas  are  con- 
sidered by  those  who  hold  them  not  merely  humane,  but  as  the  first  flower 
of  Humanity.    Let  us  not,  therefore,  gentlemen,  humiliate  the  Christianity 


Bismarch  on  Christianity.  119 

of  the  people  by  showing  that  we  do  not  think  it  necessary  for  their'law- 
givers — let  us  not  take  the  conviction  away  from  them  that  our  l^slation 
comes  from  Christianity  as  its  source — that  the  state  aims  at  the  realisation 
of  Christianity,  though  it  never  attains  its  aim.  When  I  think  of  a  Jew  as 
a  representative  to  me  of  the  consecrated  Majesty  of  the  King,  whom  I  am 
to  obey,  I  must  confess  that  I  feel  myself  deeply  humiliated  and  depressed 
and  that  the  delight  and  the  honorable  self-respect  with  which  I  now  fnlfil 
my  duties  to  the  state  have  a  heavy  burden  laid  ou  them.* 


120        Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

THl   JOURNEY   TO    VERSAILLES — THE    HOUSE    OF   MADAME 
JESSE — OUR  USUAL  LIFE  THERE. 


WE  left  Ferrieres  on  the  5th  of  October  about  seven  o'clock 
in  the  morning.  At  first  we  drove  by  country 
roads,  in  capital  condition,  through  a  great  wood  and  a  number 
of  pretty  villages,  which  seemed  to  be  quite  deserted  by  their 
inhabitants,  and  occupied  only  by  German  soldiers,  past  parks 
and  castles.  Everything  looked  uncommonly  rich  and  well-to- 
do — as  rich  as  Brie  cheese,  in  the  native  country  of  which  I 
believe  we  now  are.  In  these  villages  we  found  first  Wiii-tem- 
berg  and  farther  on  Prussian  soldiers  quartered. 

It  was  after  ten  when  we  reached  the  upper  edge  of  the 
valley  of  the  Seine,  where  we  got  down  through  a  vineyard  to 
the  low  country  on  the  banks  of  the  river  to  a  new  and  dread- 
fully steep  road,  so  steep  that  everyone  had  to  get  out  of  the 
carriage,  which  was  only  kept,  by  careful  tacking,  from  upset- 
ting and  breaking  to  pieces.  Then  we  drove  through  the 
charming  town  of  Yilleneuve  Saint-George,  the  villas  in  which 
have  been  shockingly  devasted.  In  several  of  them  which  I 
visited  whilst  our  horses  were  resting  after  their  fatigue,  the 
mirrors  were  broken,  the  furniture  destroyed,  and  the  linen  and 
papers  scattered  about.  When  we  started  again,  our  road  took 
us  over  a  canal  or  tributary  water  out  into  the  open  country, 
and  then  to  a  pontoon  bridge  across  the  Seine,  at  the  end  of 
which  great  black  and  white  flags  were  waving.  The  water  of 
the  river  was  clear  and  green,  so  that  one  could  distinctly  see 
the  many  weeds  at  the  bottom,  and  its  breath  seemed  much  the 
same  as  that  of  the  Elbe  at  Pima.  On  the  other  side  we  were 
met  by  the  Crown  Prince  and  his  retinue.  He  had  ridden  out 
to  meet  the  King,  who  mounted  his  horse  here  as  he  was  going 


First  Sight  of  Paris.  121 

to  review  the  troops.     The  Chancellor  accompanied  him,  and 
we  drove  on  alone. 

For  a  long  time  I  kept  hoping  for  Paris  to  come  in  sight. 
But  on  the  right  hand,  where  it  must  lie,  the  view  was  bounded 
by  a  rather  high  wooded  line  of  hills,  on  the  sides  of  which  a 
village  or  little  town  could  be  seen  here  and  there.  At  last 
there  was  a  depression  in  the  ridge,  a  narrow  valley,  over  which 
a  yellowish  elevation  with  sharp  edges,  perhaps  a  fort,  could 
be  seen,  and  to  the  left  of  it,  over  an  aqueduct  or  viaduct,  amid 
the  columns  of  smoke  rising  from  factory  chimneys,  the  bluish 
outlines  of  a  great  dome-shaped  building.  The  Pantheon ! 
Hurrah,  we  are  in  front  of  Paris  !  It  can  hardly  be  more  than 
seven  miles  from  here. 

Soon  afterwards  we  came  to  the  point  on  the  great  paved 
Imperial  road,  where  it  was  crossed  by  the  high  road  into  Paris. 
A  Bavarian  picket  was  stationed  there ;  on  the  left  was  a  wide 
plain,  on  the  right  a  continuation  of  the  wooded  hills,  and  half- 
way up  them  a  white  town,  Villejuif  or  Sceaux  ]  Then  down 
again,  past  two  more  villages,  where  the  inhabitants  have  not 
fled,  but  await  us  in  considerable  numbers.  At  last  we  drive 
through  iron  gates  with  gilded  spikes  into  a  broad  street,  through 
more  streets  full  of  life,  across  a  straight  avenue  of  old  trees, 
through  a  short  street  wi*h  three-storied  houses,  fine  shops,  and 
a  cafe,  and  up  a  second  avenue  and  another  street  which  drops 
down  into  it.     We  are  at  our  allotted  quarters  in  Versailles. 

On  the  6th  of  October,  the  day  after  our  arrival  in  the  old 
royal  city  of  France,  Keudell  wagered  me  that  our  stay  here 
would  probably  extend  to  three  weeks — and  this  seemed  to  me 
quite  possible,  for  we  had  been  accustomed  to  rapid  successes 
during  this  war.  In  fact,  as  the  Minister  anticipated,  accord- 
ing to  a  note  which  will  be  found  in  the  next  chapter,  we 
remained  five  whole  months.  As  the  house  where  we  found 
shelter  was  the  theatre  of  most  important  events,  a  detailed 
description  of  it  will  probably  be  welcome. 

The  house  which  the  Chancellor  occupied  belonged  to  a 
Madame  Jesse,  the  widow  of  a  prosperous  cloth  manufacturer, 
who,  with  her  two  sons,  had  fled  shortly  before  our  arrival,  to 
Picardy  or  Sologne,  and  had  left  behind,  as  the  protectors  of 
their  property,  only  the  gardner  and  his  wife.  It  stands  in 
the  Rue  de  Provence,  which  connects  the  Avenue  de  Saint- 
Cloud,  near  its  upper  end,  with  the  Boulevard  de  la  Heine,  and 
is  numbered  14.  The  street  is  one  of  the  quietest  in  Versail- 
9 


122        Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War. 

les,  and  in  only  a  pai't  of  it  do  the  houses  stand  close  together. 
The  gaps  between  the  others  are  gardens,  separated  from  the 
street  by  high  walls,  over  which  the  tops  of  trees  show  here 
and  there.  Our  house,  which  was  to  the  right  hand  of  a  per- 
son coming  from  the  avenue,  has  a  tolerably  wide  open  space 
on  both  sides.  It  lies  rather  back  from  the  street,  above  which, 
in  front,  rises  a  little  terrace  with  a  balcony,  ending  with  the 
wall  enclosing  the  whole.  The  entrance  is  through  this  wall  on 
the  left  hand  by  a  gate  of  open  ironwork,  in  which  there  is  a 
small  door.  iJuring  the  last  months  of  our  stay  there  waved 
over  it  a  flag  of  black,  white,  and  red.  On  the  right  a  noble 
pine  shades  the  whole  building,  which  is  a  villa  plastered  yel- 
low, with  five  windows  in  front  fitted  with  white  blinds. 
Above  the  raised  ground  floor  is  a  second  story,  and  above  that 
an  attic  story,  with  Mansard  windows,  which,  as  well  as  the 
sloping  roof,  is  covered  with  slates.  The  house  is  approached 
from  the  entrance  through  a  court  by  means  of  stone  steps  lead- 
ing  up  to  the  main  door,  which  opens  into  an  entrance  hall. 
On  the  right  of  this  is  the  chief  staircase ;  on  the  left  is  the 
door  to  a  little  back  staircase,  and  two  large  folding-doors. 
These  lead  into  a  middle-sized  room,  looking  on  the  garden, 
which  was  made  into  our  dining-room.  A  third  folding-door 
opposite  the  entrance  opens  into  the '  drawing-room,  a  fourth 
to  the  right  of  that  into  the  billiard-room,  from  which  we  step 
into  a  winter-garden,  a  long  room  built  of  glass  and  iron,  with 
all  kinds  of  plants  and  trees  and  a  little  fountain,  whilst  on 
the  opposite  wall  is  a  door  which  leads  to  a  small  room  con- 
taining the  library  of  the  late  M.  Jesse.  Under  the  main 
staircase,  a  passage  leads  to  the  kitchen,  which  lies  below  the 
terrace. 

In  the  drawing-room  is  a  cottage  piano,  a  sofa,  easy  chairs, 
and  two  mirrors.  In  front  of  one  of  them  is  a  little  table,  on 
which  stood  an  old-fashioned  timepiece,  surmounted  by  a 
demon-like  bronze  figure,  with  great  wings,  and  biting"  its 
thumbs,  perhaps  a  model  of  the  family  spirit  of  Madame 
Jesse,  who  afterwards  showed  herself  to  be  anything  but  an 
amiable  person.  He  watched  with  a  sardonic  grin  the  negotia- 
tions which  led  to  the  treaties  with  the  South  German  States, 
to  the  proclamation  of  the  German  Emperor  and  Empire,  and 
later  to  the  surrender  of  Paris  and  the  settlement  of  the  con- 
ditions of  peace — treaties,  all  of  which  were  signed  in  this 
drawing-room,  which  is  therefore  a  world-famous  place.     On 


Madame  Jesse's  House.  123 

the  little  table  in  front  of  the  other  mirror  lay,  on  the  day 
after  our  entrance,  a  small  map  of  France,  upon  w-hich  the 
movements  of  the  French  army  were  mai'ked  by  pins  with  dif- 
ferent colored  heads.  "Probably  it  belongs  to  Madame," 
said  the  Chief,  as  I  was  contemplating  it ;  "  but  you  see  it  is 
not  marked  after  Worth." 

The  billiard-room  was  fitted  up  as  the  Bureau  for  the  Coun- 
cillors, the  despatch  secretaries,  and  the  cipherers.  A  part  of 
the  'v\dnter  garden,  when  the  severe  frost  began  in  January,  was 
occupied  by  a  detachment  which  furnished  sentries  for  the  en- 
trance, and  which,  at  first,  consisted  of  infantry  of  the  line, 
and  afterwards  of  Green  Rifles.  The  library  was  appropriated 
by  orderlies  and  chancery  messengers,  and  now  and  then  a  cor- 
pulent leather  despatch-bag,  which  sometimes  was  so  obliging 
as  to  carry  things  not  official,  like  our  winter  clothes — and,  for 
some  days,  by  a  heap  of  French  letters  which  had  formed  the 
freight  of  a  balloon  captured  by  our  soldiers. 

On  ascending  the  main  flight  of  stairs  another  fore-hall  was 
reached  which  had  a  square  opening  above,  and  over  that  a  flat 
window  in  the  roof  which  admitted  a  kind  of  twilight.  Two 
doors  led  from  it  into  the  apartments  of  the  Minister,  two  little 
rooms  communicating,  neither  more  than  ten  paces  long  and 
seven  broad.  One,  the  windows  of  which  occupied  the  right 
side  of  the  main  front  and  looked  out  on  the  garden,  served 
both  as  his  study  and  sleeping-room,  and  was  rather  barely 
furnished.  To  the  right  by  the  wall,  opposite  the  window, 
stood  the  bed,  and  farther  on  in  a  sort  of  alcove  the  washhand- 
.stand.  On  the  other  side  was  a  mahogany  commode,  with  brass 
handles  to  pull  out  the  drawers  by,  on  which,  during  the  last 
months,  stood  the  boxes  of  cigars  sent  to  the  Minister  by  his 
friends  in  Bremen.  The  window  curtains  were  of  flowered 
woollen  stuff"  on  a  dark  ground.  On  the  fourth  wall  was  the  fire- 
place. A  sofa,  which  was  latterly  sometimes  drawn  up  to  the 
tire,  a  table  in  the  middle  of  the  room,  at  which  the  Minister 
worked  with  his  back  to  the  mndow,  and  on  which  there  was  no 
lack  of  maps  of  the  country,  and  a  few  chairs  completed  the 
extremely  simple  furniture. 

The  other  room,  which  was  furnished  somewhat  better  but 
hy  no  means  luxuriously,  was,  as  well  as  the  drawing-room  on 
the  ground  floor,  to  serve  for  the  reception  of  strangers.  It  was,  if 
I  remember  rightly,  the  room  of  the  elder  son  of  the  proprie- 
tress, and,  during  the  negotiations  for  the  capitulation  of  Paris, 


124        Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  ^Var. 

it  was  devoted  to  Jules  Favre,  for  his  meditations  and  his  cor- 
respondence. 

In  the  room,  the  door  of  which  opens  on  the  left  of  that 
leading  to  the  Chancellor's,  Count  Bismarck-Bohlen  lived,  also 
with  a  look-out  to  the  park  and  garden.  Opposite  to  him  was 
Abeken,  with  a  view  into  the  street.  Near  the  back  stairs  Sec- 
retary Bolsing  had  a  little  room,  whilst  I  was  lodged  on  the 
second  floor,  above  Bohlen's  room. 

The  park  behind  the  house  is  not  large,  but  very  pretty, 
with  winding  paths  running  under  old  trees,  covered  with  ivy 
and  evergreens,  and  in  the  background  between  thick  bushes 
and  shrubberies.  '  From  the  wall  on  the  right,  to  which  it  is 
brought  by  a  pipe,  a  spring  of  water  bubbles  out  among  stones 
covered  with  moss  and  overgrown  with  ferns  and  broad-leaved 
plants.  It  forms  a  rivulet  and  a  little  pond  for  the  ducks.  On  the 
hft,  by  the  wall,  rows  of  espalier  fruit-trees  ran  out  from  a 
?oach-house,  over  which  the  gardner's  people  live,  and  in  front 
•.")f  them  beds  of  flowers  and  vegetables,  partly  open,  partly  cov- 
.;red  with  glass. 

In  the  bright  autumn  nights,  we  used  in  our  walks  in  the 
park,  to  see  the  tall  form  and  the  white  cap  of  the  Chancellor 
issue  from  the  shadow  of  the  bushes  into  the  moonlight,  and 
walk  slowly  up  and  down.  What  was  the  unsleeping  man 
thinking  of  1  What  ideas  were  revolving  in  the  head  of  the 
solitary  wanderer  ]  What  plans  germinated  or  ripened  in  the 
still  midnight  hours  1 

Of  course  not  all  of  the  mobilised  Foreign  Office  were  quar- 
tered in  the  house  of  Madame  Jesse.  Lothar  Bucher  occupied 
a  handsome  abode  in  the  Avenue  de  Paris,  Keudell  and  the 
cipherers  were  lodged  in  houses  rather  farther  up  the  Rue  de 
Provence  than  ours,  and  Count  Hatzfeld  was  not  far  from  op- 
posite them.  More  than  once  it  was  proposed  to  move  the 
Chancellor's  quarters,  and  to  give  him  a  more  roomy  and  better- 
furnished  house.  But  the  matter  dropped,  perhap.s  because  he 
himself  did  not  feel  much  need  of  a  change,  perhaps  also  be- 
cause he  liked  the  quiet  which  reigned  in  the  comparatively 
lonely  Rue  de  Provence. 

In  the  daytime  his  calm  and  repose  was,  however,  not  so 
idyllic  as  many  newspaper  correspondents  then  represented  it. 
I  do  not  mean  on  account  of  the  drumming  and  fifing  of  the 
battalions  marching  out  and  in,  which  we  heard  every  ,day 
even  as  far  off  as  we  were,  nor  of  the  disturbance  occasioned  by 


The  Chancellor's  Visitws.  125 

the  sorties,  two  of  which  were  made  by  the  Parisians  in  our 
direction  ;  nor  even  of  the  fury  of  the  hottest  days  of  the  bom- 
bardment, to  which  we  became  as  much  accustomed  as  the  miller 
to  the  sound  of  his  clattering  mill-wheels.  I  refer  eepecially  to 
the  many  visits  of  every  conceivable  kind,  in  these  eventful 
months  ;  and  among  which  some  were  unwelcome  ones.  For 
many  hours  of  the  day  our  house  was  like  a  dove-cot,  —  so 
many  acquaintances  and  strangers  went  in  and  out.  From 
Paris  there  were  at  first  only  non-ofl&cial  people  who  came  to 
hear  or  to  bring  news  ;  afterwards,  as  official  negotiators,  Fa^Te 
and  Thiers  occasionally,  with  a  more  or  less  numerous  retinue. 
From  the  Hotel  des  Reservoirs  came  princes,  the  Crown  Prince 
several  times,  and  the  King  himself  once.  The  Church  too 
was  represented  among  the  visitors  by  persons  of  great  dignity, 
Archbishops  and  other  prelates.  Berlin  sent  deputations  from 
the  Reichstag,  single  leaders  of  parties,  bankers  and  high  offi- 
cials. From  Bavaria  and  the  other  South  German  States  came 
Ministers  to  assist  in  the  settlement  of  the  treaties.  American 
generals,  members  of  the  foreign  diplomatic  bodies  in  Paiis, 
amongst  them  a  gentleman  in  black — an  envoy  of  the  Imperi- 
alists, all  wished  to  speak  to  the  busy  statesman  in  his  little 
room  upstairs.  That  the  curiosity  of  English  reporters  should 
try  to  intrude  itself  on  him  was  a  matter  of  course.  Then 
ii^ld  messengers  with  despatch  bags  full,  or  waiting  to  be  filled. 
Chancery  messengers  with  telegrams,  orderlies  with  news  from 
the  general  staff  ;  and  besides  all  these,  work  in  abundance 
equally  difficult  and  important.  Weighing,  inquiiing,  and 
acting  were  necessaiy  when  obstacles,  vexatious  annoyances  and 
troubles  occurred.  Expectations  were  deceived  which  seemed 
to  be  well  grounded.  !Now  and  then  we  were  not  supported 
or  our  views  were  not  met  half-way.  There  were  the  foolish 
opinions  of  the  German  newspapers,  which  grumbled  in  spite 
of  our  unheard-of  successes,  and  the  agitation  of  the  Ultra- 
montanes.  In  short,  it  was  very  difficult  to  understand  how  the 
Chancellor  amid  all  this,  -with  all  these  claims  on  his  powei-s  of 
work  and  patience,  and  all  these  disturbances  and  vexations 
about  serious  matters  and  about  trifles,  preserved  his  health — 
he  was  only  once  seriously  unwell  in  Versailles  for  three  or  four 
days — and  the  freshness  of  spirits,  which  he  often  displayed 
even  late  at  night  in  talk  both  grave  and  gay. 

Of  recreation  the  Minister   allowed  himself  very  little.     A 
ride  between  three  and  four  o'clock,  an  hour  at  dinner,  half  an 


126  ■■      Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War. 

hour  afterwards  for  coffee  in  the  drawing-room,  and  sometimes 
later,  about  ten  o'clock  a  little  rest  for  tea  and  a  talk,  some- 
times long  and  sometimes  short,  with  those  who  happened  to 
be  there  ;  a  few  hours'  sleep  after  the  day  began  to  dawn. 
With  these  exceptions  the  whole  day  was  given  to  study  or 
production  in  his  own  room,  or  to  conferences  and  negotiations, 
unless  when  a  French  sortie  or  some  rather  important  military 
business  took  him  out  to  the  side  of  the  King,  or  to  some  point 
of  observation  where  he  could  be  alone. 

The  Chancellor  had  guests  at  dinner  nearly  every  day,  and 
in  this  way  we  came  to  know  by  sight  almost  all  the  persons 
whose  names  were  famous  or  became  celebrated  in  the  course 
of  the  war,  and  often  heard  their  conversation.  Favre  dined 
with  us  repeatedly,  first  with  hesitation  "  because  his  country- 
men were  starving  inside,"  then  listening  to  sound  advice,  and 
doing  justice  as  heartily  as  the  rest  of  us  to  the  many  good 
things  which  the  kitchen  and  the  cellar  provided.  Thiers,  with 
his  acute  and  clever  face,  dined  with  us  once.  On  another  oc- 
casion the  Crown  Prince  did  us  the  honor  of  dining  with  us, 
when  the  fellow-workers  of  the  Chief,  with  whom  he  had  not 
been  hitherto  acquainted,  were  presented  to  him.  Prince  Al- 
brecht  also  once  dined  with  us  as  a  guest.  Of  the  other  guests 
of  the  Minister,  I  mention  here  the  President  of  the  Chancel- 
lery, Delbriick,  who  remained  several  times  for  weeks  in  Ver- 
sailles ;  the  Duke  of  Eatibor,  Prince  Putbus,  von  Benningsen, 
Simson,  Bamberger,  von  Friedenthal,  and  von  Blankenburg, 
then  the  Bavarian  ministers,  Count  Bray,  and  von  Liitz,  the 
Wiirtembergers,  von  Wachter  and  Mittnacht,  von  Roggen- 
bach.  Prince  Eadziwill  ;  and,  lastly,  Odo  Russell,  the  English 
ambassador  to  the  German  Court.  The  conversation  when  the 
Chief  was  present  was  always  animated  and  varied  ;  often  very 
instructive  as  to  his  mode  of  viewing  men  and  things,  or  to 
certain  episodes  and  passages  in  his  past  life.  Home  furnished 
some  of  the  material  good  things,  as  presents  and  offerings, 
which  arrived  in  the  shape  of  solids  or  fluids  sometimes  in  such 
excess  that  the  store-rooms  could  scarcely  contain  them.  A 
present  of  the  best  -vvine  of  the  Palatinate,  if  I  remember  right, 
Deidesheimer  Kirchenstiick  and  Forster  Hofsttick,  which  Jor- 
don,  or  perhaps  it  was  Buhl,  supplied  to  us,  and  gigantic  trout 
pasty,  sent  by  Frederick  Schultze,  the  landlord  of  the  Leipzig 
garden  in  Berlin,  whose  patriotic  benevolence  at  the  same  time 
provided  us  plentifully   with  excellent  beer,  were  among  the 


Madame  Jesse.  127 

noblest  of  these  presents.  Among  the  most  touching,  I  reckon 
a  dish  of  mushrooms  which  some  soldiers  had  found  in  a  hollow 
or  cellar  in  the  town,  and  reserved  for  the  Chancellor.  Even 
more  precious  and  poetical  was  a  bunch  of  roses,  which  other 
soldiers  had  gathered  for  him  under  the  enemy's  fire. 

Madame  Jesse  showed  herself  only  on  the  last  days  before 
our  return  home,  and  made,  as  I  have  remarked,  not  a  very 
pleasing  impression.  She  spread  abroad  all  manner  of  stories 
about  our  pillaging,  which  were  repeated  with  pleasure  by  the 
French  press,  and  indeed  even  by  those  journals  which  gener- 
ally in  other  respects  exercised  some  discretion  and  showed 
some  sense  of  decency  in  what  they  stated.  Among  other 
things,  we  were  said  to  have  packed  up  her  plate  and  table  linen 
and  carried  them  off.  Count  Bismarck,  too,  had  wanted  to 
extort  from  her  a  valuable  clock.  The  first  assertion  is  a  sim- 
ple impertinence,  as  the  house  contained  no  silver  plate,  or  if  it 
did,  it  must  have  been  deposited  in  a  walled-up  comer  of  the 
cellar  which,  at  the  express  order  of  the  Chief,  was  never 
opened.  The  history  of  the  clock  was  rather  different  from 
what  Madame  represented  it  to  be.  The  clock  was  one  in  the 
drawing-room  with  a  little  bronze  demon.  Madame  Jesse 
offered  this  piece  of  furniture,  of  no  great  value  in  itself,  to  the 
Chancellor,  at  an  exorbitant  price,  under  the  idea  that  he 
would  value  it  as  a  memento  of  important  transactions.  I 
believe  she  asked  5000  francs  (£200)  for  it.  She  did  not  get 
them,  as  the  offer  of  a  woman,  who  showed  no  gratitude  in  her 
greed  for  our  exceedingly  considerate  usage  of  her  house,  waa 
rejected.  "  I  remember,"  the  Minister  said  afterwards,  in 
Berlin,  "  that  I  made  the  remark  at  the  time,  that  the  Kob- 
old-like  figure  on  the  clock,  with  its  grimaces,  might  perhapa 
be  valuable  to  herself  as  a  family  portrait,  and  that  I  would  not 
deprive  her  of  it." 


128        Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

AUTUMN   DAYS    IN  VERSAILLES. 


ON  the  day  of  our  arrival  at  Versailles,  a  thick  white  fog, 
which  filled  the  air  till  close  on  ten  o'clock,  warned  us 
that  autumn  was  about  to  show  vis  its  rough  side,  although  the 
trees  were  still  quite  green  in  the  avenues  and  gardens,  as  well 
as  on  the  wooded  heights  round  Paris.  , 

Before  dinner  I  paid  a  visit  to  the  Palace.  The  town  front 
of  this  very  handsome  building  is  too  much  broken  in  detail ; 
toAvards  the  park  it  is  much  more  simple.  The  greater  part  of 
it  is  now  turned  into  a  hospital.  We  looked  into  the  galleries 
filled  with  pictures,  the  lower  rows  of  which  are  boarded  over  ; 
the  beds,  full  of  the  sick  and  wounded,  being  placed  close  in 
front  of  them.  The  statues  of  gods  and  the  groups  of  nymphs 
by  the  great  basin,  between  the  park  and  the  Palace,  are  won- 
derfully beautiful.  The  second  basin  in  front  of  the  broad 
staircase  below,  which  may  be  about  a  mile  long,  and  the  one 
which  stretches  away  beyond,  are  similarly  ornamented.  More 
to  my  taste  are  some  of  the  marble  columns  on  the  walks  lead- 
ing from  the  second  basin  to  the  third.  Tlie  park  is  very  large, 
and  not  so  stiffly  and  architecturally  laid  out  as  I  had  imagined 
from  descriptions.  But  the  trees  and  bushes  cut  into  cones 
and  pyramids  near  the  staircase  are  exceedingly  artificial  and 
wnpleasing. 

At  dinner  Count  Bismarck-Bohlen  did  not  appear,  and  differ- 
ent reasons  were  given  for  his  absence.  In  the  morning  Keu- 
dell  said  to  me  that  our  stay  in  Versailles  might  last  three 
weeks  ;  that  Metz  must  soon  capitulate,  as  they  had  only  horse- 
flesh there,  and  no  salt  with  it.  In  Paris  greater  confidence 
prevailed,  although  many  animals  were  dying,  the  cattle  being 
chiefly  fed  on  compressed  hay,  a  statement  which  Burnside,  who 


"Absurd  Lie."  129 

meantime  had  been  in  Paris,  confirmed  in  the  Bureau.  The 
views  of  the  Minister  are  not  now  so  sanguine. 

The  question  of  the  uniform  for  the  secretaries  again  came 
up,  and  the  Chief  thought,  in  connection  with  this,  that  the 
war  might  last  perhaps  till  Christmas,  possibly  till  Easter,  and 
that  part  of  the  army  might  even  have  to  remain  in  France  for 
years.  They  ought  to  have  stormed  Paris  on  the  18th  Septem- 
ber. He  then  said  to  his  servant,  "  Look  here,  Engel ;  send  to 
Bei'lin  for  my  fur  coat — or  better,  for  both  of  them  ;  the  rough 
fur,  and  the  light  thin  one."  The  conversation  then  turned  to 
the  life  led  by  their  Highnesses  of  the  different  Headquarters 
in  the  Hotel  des  Reservoirs,  and  to  the  question  whether  the 
expenses  of  their  maintenance  shoiild  be  paid  by  the  King,  by 
themselves,  or  by  .the  town. 

In  the  Daily  Telegraph,  "  An  Englishman  at  the  headquartes 
at  Meaux  "  relates  that  the  Chief  said,  at  the  close  of  his  con- 
versation with  Mallet,  "  What  I  and  the  King  most  fear  is  the 
influence  of  a  French  Republic  upon  Germany.  We  know 
well  what  influence  Republicanism  in  America  has  had  upon 
Germany  ;  and  if  the  French  fight  us  with  a  Republican  pro- 
paganda, they  will  do  us  more  damage  by  that  than  by  their 
arms."  The  Minister  has  written  on  the  margin  of  this  quota- 
tion, "  Absurd  lie." 

Friday,  October  7. — This  morning,  soon  after  daybreak,  I 
heard  several  shots  from  heavy  artillery,  which  appeared  not 
much  more  than  a  couple  of  miles  from  here.  Later  in  the  day 
I  was  enabled  to  announce  to  Berlin  that  our  losses  in  the  last 
action  had  not  been,  as  the  French  falsely  asserted,  much 
greater,  but  far  less  than  those  of  the  French.  The  French 
were  said  to  have  had  about  400,  and  we  500  killed  and 
wounded.  In  fact  they  left,  in  front  of  the  12th  Division 
alone,  450,  and  upon  the  whole  field,  about  800  men  ;  whilst 
we  had  only  eighty-five  killed. 

The  Greek  ambassador  in  Paris  has  come  out  to  us,  Hatzfeld 
told  us  at  breakfast,  with  a  "  family  "  of  twenty-four  or  twenty- 
five  persons,  on  his  way  to  the  Delegation  of  the  Govern- 
ment of  National  Defence  in  Tours.  The  Ambassador's  boy 
told  the  Count  that  he  Avas  •  not  at  all  pleased  with  Paris, 
and  when  asked  why  not,  answered,  because  he  got  so  little 
meat  to  eat  there. 

In  the  afternoon  I  again  walked  in  the  park  at  the  Palace, 
taking  on  this  occasion  not  the  way  by  the  Avenue  de  Saint  • 


180        Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War. 

Cloud  and  the  Place  d'Armes,  but  by  the  Boulevard  de  la 
Heine,  towards  the  basin  of  Neptune,  over  which  this  god,  with 
his  wife  and  all  manner  of  grotesque  water  deities,  is  enthroned. 
At  some  distance  from  this  spot,  in  a  very  lonely  place,  we  met 
the  Chancellor  and  Hatzfeld  on  horseback — no  escort  to  be  seen. 
What  are  they  here  for  1 

At  dinner  Hatzfeld  complained  that  the  Greeks,  who  wanted 
to  get  away,  tormented  him  ^vith  lamentations.  From  what 
he  afterwards  said,  it  was  evident  that  they  and  other  visitors 
from  Paris  had  excited  suspicions  as  to  their  intentions.  After 
this  the  talk  turned  upon  the  exhausted  condition  of  the  town 
of  Versailles,  which  had  been  put  to  great  expense  during  the 
last  two  weeks.  The  new  mayor  of  the  town  Monsieur  Eameau, 
had  asked  and  obtained  an  audience  with  the  Chief,  about 
which  the  Chief  went  on  to  speak.  "  I  told  him  that  they 
should  raise  a  loan.  'Yes,'  he  replied,  '  that  would  be  very  well ; 
but  then  he  must  ask  to  be  allowed  to  travel  to  Tours,  because 
for  such  a  measure  he  needed  the  authority  of  his  Government. 
This,  however,  I  could  not  promise  him.  He  might  not  get 
the  permission  he  was  going  there  to  ask  — probably  they 
thought  in  Tours  that  it  was  the  duty  of  the  people  in  Ver- 
sailles to  starve,  so  that  we  might  starve  with  them.  But  they 
do  not  consider  that  we  are  the  stronger,  and  will  take  what 
we  want.  They  have  not  the  least  notion  what  war  is."  The  as- 
sembly of  a  Constituent  French  Assembly  in  Versailles  was 
afterwards  discussed,  and  its  possibility  was  doubted  —  there 
was  no  hall  here  large  enough  for  the  purpose,  the  Palace 
being  occupied  with  the  wounded.  The  Assembly  of  1789 
first  met  as  a  whole  in  a  church,  and  then  in  different  places, 
according  to  its  Three  Estates.  Ultimately,  the  gentlemen 
had  all  met  together  in  a  ball-room — which,  however,  no  longer 
exists.* 

The  Minister  then  spoke  of  the  Palace,  with  its  park,  prais- 
ing the  beautiful  Orangery  of  the  terrace  with  the  two  great 
flights  of  steps.  He  said,  however,  "  What  are  these  trees  in 
tubs  to  the  orange  groves  of  Italy  f 

Some  one  now  brought  up  the  subject  of  Toleration,  and  the 
Chancellor  expressed  himself  as  he  had  done  before  in  Saint- 
Avoid.     He  declared  himself  very  decidedly  for  toleration  in 

*  A  mistake  (see  below) ;  but  this  place  would  not  hold  any  very  grea 
nxunber  of  people. 


The  Presbyterians  and  Thomas  Faroe.         131 

matters  of  faith  ;  but,  he  continued,  the  '' ilhrminati"  "are  not 
tolerant ;  they  persecute  those  who  believe,  not,  indeed,  with 
the  scaffold,  for  that  is  not  possible ;  but  A'ith  contempt  and 
insolence  in  the  press.  And  among  the  people,  so  far  as  they 
belong  to  the  unbelieving  party.  Toleration  has  made  but  little 
way.  I  should  not  like  to  see  how  delighted  they  would  be 
here  to  have  Pastor  Knak  hanged." 

It  was  mentioned  that  the  old  Protestantism  itself  taught 
nothing  of  Toleration,  and  Bucher  pointed  out  that,  according 
to  Buckle,  the  Huguenots  were  zealous  reactionaries,  and  that 
this  was  true  of  the  Eeformers  of  those  days  generally.  "  Not 
exactly  reactionaries,"  replied  the  Chief,  "  but  little  tyrants. 
Every  pastor  was  a  little  Pope."  He  cited  Calvin's  persecution 
of  Servetus,  and  added,  "  even  Luther  was  the  same."  I  ven- 
tured to  remind  them  of  his  treatment  of  Carlstadt,  and  of  the 
disciples  of  Miinzer,  as  well  as  what  the  Wiirtemberg  theo- 
logians after  him  had  done,  and  of  Chancellor  Krell.  Bucher 
said  that  the  Scottish  Presbyterians,  at  the  end  of  last  century, 
condemned  anyone  who  only  lent  Thomas  Paine's  book  on  the 
*'  Rights  of  Man"  to  banishment  for  twenty -one  years.  I  again 
referred  to  the  Puritans  of  the  Xew  England  States,  with  their 
strong  intolerance  to  those  who  differed  from  them  in  opinion, 
and  to  their  tyrannical  liquor  law.  "And  the  'keeping  holy 
the  Sabbath  day,'"  said  the  Chief,  "that  is  perfectly  horrible 
tyranny.  I  remember,  when  I  first  went  to  England,  and 
landed  in  Hull,  that  I  began  to  whistle  in  the  street.  An 
Englishman,  whom  I  had  got  acquainted  with  on  board,  told 
me  that  I  must  not  whistle.  'Pray,  sir,  do  not  whistle.' 
*  Why  not ;  is  whistling  fox-bidden  here  f  '  Iso,'  said  he,  'it  is 
not  forbidden ;  but  it  is  the  Sabbath.'  This  so  disgusted  me 
that  I  at  once  took  my  ticket  by  another  steamer  going  to 
Edinburgh,  as  I  did  not  choose  not  to  be  able  to  whistle  when  I 
had  a  mind  to.  Before  I  started  I  had  made  acquaintance 
with  something  exceedingly  good— r-toasted  cheese, — Welsh 
rabbit,  for  we  had  got  into  an  inn."  When  Bucher  remarked 
that  Sunday  in  England  is  in  general  not  so  bad,  and  that  for 
himself  he  had  always  delighted  in  its  quiet,  after  the  noise  and 
bustle  of  the  week-days  in  London,  where  the  theatre  is  not 
ov-er  till  the  early  morning  :  "  I,  too,"  Bismarck  went  on  to  say, 
"  am  not  at  all  against  the  observance  of  the  Sunday ;  on  the 
contrary,  I  do  all  I  can,  as  a  landed  proprietor,  to  promote  it,  only 
I  will  not  have  people  constrained.     Each  man  must  know  best 


132        Bismarck  in  the  1  ,anco-Gei^ian  War. 

how  to  prepare  himself  for  a  future  life.  On  Sunday  no  work 
should  be  done  ;  not  so  much  because  it  is  against  the  command- 
ment of  God,  as  on  tnan's  account,  who  needs  some  repose.  This 
of  coxirse,  does  not  apply  to  the  service  of  the  state,  especially 
not  to  diplomatic  service,  for  despatches  and  telegrams  arrive 
on  Sunday,  which  must  be  attended  to.  Nor  is  anything  to  be 
said  against  our  peasants  bringing  in  their  hay  or  corn  on  a 
Sunday  in  the  harvest  after  long  rain,  when  fine  weather 
begins  on  a  Saturday.  I  could  not  find  in  my  heart  to  forbid 
this  to  my  tenants  in  the  contract,  although  I  should  not  do  it 
myself,  being  able  to  bear  the  possible  damage  of  a  rainy 
Monday.  It  is  thought  by  our  proprietors  rather  improper  to 
let  their  people  work  on  a  Sunday  even  in  such  cases  of  neces- 
sity." 

I  mentioned  that  pious  folk  in  America  allow  no  cooking  on 
the  Sunday,  and  that  in  New  York  I  was  once  asked  to  dinner 
and  got  only  cold  meat.  "  Yes,"  replied  the  Chief,  "in  Frank- 
furt, where  I  was  still  freer,  we  always  dined  more  simply  on 
Sunday,  and  I  have  never  used  my  carriage,  for  the  sake  of  my 
servants."  I  allowed  myself  one  remark  more,  that  in  Leipzig 
during  the  Sunday  all  business,  with  the  exception  of  the 
bakers  and  many  cigar  shops,  were  closed.  "  Yes,  and  so  it 
should  be ;  but  I  would  have  no  one  constrained.  I  could, 
perhaps,  manage  in  the  country  to  buy  nothing  from  the  baker ; 
but,  then,  everything  must  be  particularly  good,  otherwise  T 
do  not  know  if  I  could  get  on.  But  care  should  be  taken 
that  noisy  work,  as  in  blacksmiths'  shops,  &c.,  &c.,  should  not  be 
carried  on  too  near  the  churches  on  Sunday." 

Saturday,  October  8. — In  the  morning,  before  the  Minister 
rose,  I  walked  to  the  Palace  of  the  Bourbons,  over  the  centre 
of  which  the  black  and  white  Prussian  colors  were  waving, 
and  close  beside  them  the  flag  with  the  red  cross.  I  find  that 
the  French  heroes  in  marble  in  the  court  in  front  of  it,  Avhen 
they  are  more  closely  inspected,  are  mostly  very  moderate  per- 
formances. Among  them  are  Bayard  and  Dugusclin,  Turenne, 
Colbert,  Sully,  and  Tourville.  The  naval  heroes  attitudinise 
like  second-rate  actors,  and  one  fears  that  they  may  fall  from 
their  pedestals  and  come  to  grief  on  the  pavement.  The  bronze 
Louis  XIY.  is  much  finer,  but  I  prefer  the  Great  Elector  in 
Berlin  by  Schliiter. 

Sunday,  October  9. — Bad  Aveather,  cold,  and  rainy.  The 
eaves  fall  fast.     A  sharp   north-west  wind   sweeps  over  the 


Bravery  of  a  Princess.  133 

plateau.  In  spite  of  this  I  take  a  walk  through  the  town, 
which  must  be  gradually  explored,  by  the  Rue  Saint-Pierre  to 
the  prefecture  in  the  Avenue  de  Paris,  where  King  William 
lives,  and  then  down  anothe^treet  to  the  monument  erected 
to  the  teacher  of  the  deaf  and  dumb,  Abbe  1'  Epee.  On  the 
way  back  I  meet  Keudell,  whom  I  ask  whether  he  has  heard 
nothing  as  yet  of  the  commencement  of  the  bombardment  of 
Babylon.  He  thought  that  the  next  week,  probably  on  the 
18th,  our  heavy  artillery  would  make  itself  heard.  In  the 
course  of  the  forenoon  I  was  three  times  with  the  Chief ;  and 
had  his  commands  executed  by  the  afternoon.  At  breakfast 
Delbriick  Avas  again  present,  and  the  Minister  seemed  to  be 
highly  delighted  with  his  appearing.  We  drink,  among  other 
excellent  things,  very  old  corn-brandy,  on  which  the  President 
of  the  Chancery  pronounced  an  intelligent  panegyric,  for  in  the 
science  of  what  tastes  well  he  has  evidently  made  successful 
studies. 

Moiiday,  October  10. — This  morning,  between  .;even  and  eight 
o'clock,  about  a  dozen  shots  were  heard,  and  Willisch  thought 
he  also  heard  at  the  same  time  a  musketry  fire.  I  was  sum- 
moned this  morning  twice  to  the  Chief.  Somewhat  later  he 
went  to  the  Crown  Prince,  -with  whom  he  remained  to  break- 
fast. At  table  they  spoke  particularly  of  the  conversation  of 
the  King  with  Napoleon  in  the  Maison  Bellevue,  near  Sedan, 
of  which  Russell  has  given  a  circumstantial  account  in  the 
Times,  although  no  one  was  present  at  it  but  the  King  and  the 
Emperor,  and  even  the  Chancellor  knew  only  so  much  of  it  that 
the  King  had  assured  him  that  not  a  word  of  politics  had  been 
spoken.  Then  some  one,  I  do  not  know  why  or  how,  turned 
the  conversation  on  dangerous  and  sensational  travelling  adven- 
tures, and  the  Minister  told  us  of  several' rash  exploits  of  his 
under  this  head. 

"I  remember,"  said  he,  "I  was  once  at  Pont  du  Gard,  in 
South  France,  with  some  people,  among  whom  were  the  Orloffs. 
There  is  there  an  old  Roman  aqueduct,  which  i.s  carried  across 
a  valley  by  several  tiers  of  arches.  Princess  OrlofF,  a  lively 
lady,  proposed  that  we  should  walk  along  the  top  of  it.  There 
was  a  very  narrow  footway  by  the  side  of  the  conduit,  only 
about  a  foot  and  a  half  broad,  then  the  deep-cut  conduit,  and 
on  the  other  side  again  a  wall  with  stone  slabs  at  the  top." 
"  It  looked  rather  serious,  but  I  could  not  be  outdone  in  cour- 
age by  a  lady.     So  we  both   made  the  venture.     Orloff,  how- 


134        Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War. 

«ver,  "went  with  the  others  in  the  valley  below.  For  some  time 
we  walked  on  the  slabs,  and  then  we  got  on  very  well  along  a 
narrow  ledge,  from  which  we  looked  down  more  than  a  hundred 
feet ;  then  we  came  to  a  place  wiftre  the  slabs  had  fallen,  and 
we  had  to  walk  on  the  bare  wall  itself.  Further  on  were  slabs 
again,  but  soon  only  the  dangerous  wall  with  its  small  stones. 
Then  I  plucked  up  courage,  stepped  quickly  up  to  the  lady, 
seized  her  with  one  arm  and  jumped  with  her  down  into  the 
conduit,  some  four  or  five  feet  down.  But  our  friends  below, 
who  suddenly  lost  sight  of  us,  were  thrown  into  the  "greatest 
anxiety,  till  we  came  out  again  at  the  end." 

In  the  evening  the  Chief  had  me  called  to  his  room  to  give 
me  something  to  do  with  regard  to  Garibaldi,  who,  Ave  learnt  by 
telegraph,  had  arrived  at  Tours  and  had  offered  his  services  to 
the  French  Republic.  Then  the  Chancellor  continued:  "But 
tell  me  now  why  you  have  lately  been  so  clumsy,  I  mean,  in 
what  you  have  been  "writing.  I  do  not  mean  merely  about 
text  of  the  telegram,  but  what  you  said  lately  about  the  Ultra- 
montanes  was  very  strong  in  its  expressions."  I  took  leave  to 
reply  that  I  could  also  be  civil,  and  that  I  thought  I  was  rather 
good  at  fine  malice.  "  Well  then,"  said  he,  "  be  fine,  but  with- 
out malice.  Write  diplomatically  ;  even  in  declaring  war  peo- 
ple are  quite  polite." 

At  half-past  nine  o'clock  Burnside  and  his  companions  came 
again  and  stayed  till  half-past  ten  with  the  Chancellor,  who 
then  gave  me  another  commission.  La*er  still  we  saw  him 
walking  up  and  down  the  garden  in  the  bright  moonlight  till 
the  ghostly  hour  of  midnight,  whilst  from  the  direction  of 
Paris  there  came  the  thunder  of  guns,  and  once,  too,  a  heavy 
repo.rt  as  of  an  explosion. 

Tuesday,  October'  11. — In  the  afternoon,  when  iiie  Chancellor 
had  ridden  out,  I  paid  a  flying  visit  to  the  great  picture-galler- 
ies on  the  side  of  the  Palace,  where  the  church  is,  and  be- 
held, immortalised  by  pencil  and  chisel,  the  "  Famous  deeds  of 
France  "  (Toutes  les  gloiresj,  to  which,  according  to  the  inscrip- 
tion over  the  entrance-hall,  this  wing  of  the  building  is  dedi- 
cated. On  the  ground-floor  are  mostly  pictures  of  scenes  in 
the  ancient  history  of  France,  amongst  them  some  very  good 
things,  some  ordinaiy  pictures  of  the  time  of  Napoleon  I.  and 
Louis  XIV.,  battle-pieces,  sieges,  and  such-like.  Upstairs  are 
the  gigantic  canvasses  on  which  Horace  Vernet  has  depicted 
the  ^"gloires"  of  his  countrymen  in  Algeria,  as  well  as  more 


A  Congress  of  German  Princes.  135 

modern  pictures  from  the  wars  in  the  Crioea  and  in  Italy,  with 
marble  busts  of  the  generals  who  commanded  there.  The  days 
of  Worth,  Metz,  and  Sedan  will  probably  not  make  their  ap- 
pearance here.  We  will  look  at  these  again  more  at  our  leisure, 
but  even  in  our  hasty  visit  to-day,  we  observe  that  there  is  a 
system  in  these  galleries,  and  that  on  the  whole  they  are  more 
like  the  hatching  oven  of  an  ambitious  Chauvinist,  swollen 
with  insolence,  than  a  museum  for  the  triumphs  and  delights 
of  art. 

According  to  the  talk  at  table,  there  has  been  an  intention 
for  some  time  of  assembling  a  congress  of  German  Princes  at 
Versailles.  It  is  hoped  that  the  King  of  Bavaria  may  come ; 
and  Delbriick  thinks  that  some  of  the  historical  rooms  of  the 
Palace  should  be  appropriated  and  furnished  as  a  suitable  resi- 
dence for  his  Majesty.  He  was  told,  however,  that,  unhappily, 
this  could  not  be  done,  as  the  greater  part  of  the  Palace  was  now 
turned  into  a  hospital  full  of  typhus.  The  Chief  dined  to-day 
with  the  Crown  Prince,  and  did  not  come  home  till  ten  o'clock, 
when  he  had  an  interview  with  Burnside. 

Wednesday,  October  12. — A  damp  disagreeable  day.  In  the 
morning,  two  letters  from  an  English  general  of  hussars  were 
translated  and  extracts  made  from  them  for  the  King.  In 
these  we  were  advised  to  employ  the  bridge  at  Sevres  to  dam 
up  the  Seine,  and  in  this  way  to  flood  Paris.  Then  I  prepared 
■an  abridgment  of  a  report  of  a  German  Companion  of  St.  John, 
very  gratefully  recognizing  the  kind  treatment  of  our  wounded 
•soldiers  in  B»ouillon  by  the  people  of  Belgium.  Lastly,  I  ^^Tote 
a  paper  on  the  hostile  position  which  the  Ultramontanes  had 
taken  up  towards  us  in  this  war.  When  I  read  it  over  to  the 
Chief,  he  said,  "  Still  you  do  not  A\Tite  politely  enough  for  me  ; 
and  yet  you  told  me  you  were  a  master  of  fipe  malice.  Here 
there  is  more  malice  than  fineness.  You  must  reverse  this. 
You  must  write  like  a  politician ;  and  in  politics  it  is  not  one's 
object  to  affront  people." 

In  the  evening  a  gentleman  came  to  beg  admittance  to  the 
Chancellor.  He  was  a  Spanish  diplomatist  who  had  come  out 
of  Paris,  and,  like  other  gentlemen,  could  not  get  back  again. 
He  remained  a  long  time  with  him.  Some  oi,  us  think  his 
coming  rather  suspicious.  While  we  were  at  tea,  Burnside 
■came  in.  He  is  going  from  here  to  Brussels,  to  settle  his  wife 
there,  who  is  now  at  Geneva.  We  hear  from  him  that  Sheridan 
■also  is  travelling  in  Switzerland  and  Italy.     There  is  indeed 


136        Bismxirch  in  the  Franco-German  War. 

nothing  more  for  the  Americans  to  do  here.  The  general 
wished  to  visit  the  Chief  this  evening  once  more.  I  represented 
to  him,  and  persuaded  him,  that  though  the  Chancellor,  in  his 
predilection  for  Americans,  would  receive  him  if  he  were  an- 
nounced, one  ought  to  remember  the  little  time  he  has  at  his 
command.  He  needs  five  or  six  hours  more  than  the  twenty- 
four  for  his  daily,  business,  so  that  he  is  forced  to  sit  up  late 
into  the  night  and  to  curtail  as  much  as  possible  conversation 
even  with  Crowned  Heads. 

Thursday,  October  13. — At  breakfast  a  lieutenant  of  hussars, 
von  Ulsar,  was  introduced  to  us  by  Hatzfeld.  He  came  from 
the  outposts,  and  told  us  that  where  he  was,  every  time  that  a 
single  rider  or  the  head  of  one  of  our  men  was  seen  by  them, 
half-a-dozen  of  the  iron  sugar-loves  from  the  Paris  forts  were 
hurled  at  him,  but  almost  always  without  doing  any  damage. 
They  appeared,  at  any  rate,  not  to  be  suffering  from  want  of 
ammunition. 

Eain  about  one  o'clock.  After  this  I  was  in  the  Petit 
Trianon.  Hundreds  of  thrushes  were  sitting  on  the  tops  of 
the  trees,  on  the  right  of  the  great  avenue  leading  to  it.  We 
visited  the  sitting-room  of  Marie  Antoinette.  Different  pic- 
tures represent  her  as  a  child,  in  a  group  with  her  sisters,  and 
as  a  queen.  There  is  a  portrait  of  her  husband,  some  old  rococo 
furniture  which  she  used,  and  her  sleeping-room,  with  its  bed 
and  other  articles  which  the  conscientious  French  guide  sub- 
mitted to  our  inspection,  with  friendly  explanations. 

Friday,  October  14- — Busy  up  till  noon  for  the  post.  Later 
I  telegraphed  to  London  and  Brussels  in  reference  to  Ducrot's 
false  assertions  in  La  Liberie.  It  was  announced  in  the  same 
way  that  General  Boyer,  Bazaine's  first  adjutant,  had  arrived 
from  Metz  at  Versailles  as  a  negotiator.  The  Chief  appears, 
however,  to  wisn  to  undertake  nothing  serious  witli  him  to- 
day. He  said  in  the  Bureau,  "  What  is  to-day  ?"  "  The  14th, 
your  Excellency."  "  Well,  that  was  Hochkirch  and  Jena  (both 
on  14th  October).  A  bad  day  for  settling  any  business."  No 
doubt  he  reflected  it  was  Friday,  too. 

During  dinner,  the  Chief,  after  thinking  for  a  moment, 
smiled  and  said,  "  I  have  a  charming  idea  ready  for  the  time 
when  peace  is  concluded.  It  is  this,  to  establish  an  Interna- 
tional tribunal,  to  try  those  who  instigated  this  war — news- 
paper writers,  deputies,  senators,  ministers."  Abeken  added, 
"  Thiers,  too,  indirectly,  and  indeed  especially  for  his  Chauvin- 


The  AutJiora  of  the  War.  137" 

istic  *  H's':ory  of  the  Consulate  and  the  Empire.' "  "  The 
Emperor,  too,  Avho  is  not  so  innocent  as  he  pretends  to  be," 
added  the  Minister,  "  I  thought  of  an  eqiial  number  of  judges, 
from  each  of  the  great  Powers,  England,  America,  Russia, 
(kc,  (tc,  and  that  we  should  be  the  accusers."  "The  English 
and  the  Russians  would,  of  course,  not  enter  into  this  proposal ; 
and  then  we  might  form  the  Court  from  the  nations  who  have 
most  suffered  from  the  war  ;  from  French  and  German  repre- 
sentatives." He  said,  further,  '*  I  have  read  the  article  of  the 
IiuUpendance,  which  is  said  to  be  Gramont's.  He  blames  us 
for  not  letting  Napoleon  go  after  Sedan,  and  he  is  not  pleased 
that  we  marched  upon  Paris  instead  of  merely  occupying  Elsass 
and  Lothringen  as  material  guarantees.  I  thought  at  first  that 
the  article  was  by  Beust  or  some  other  good  friend  in  Austria, 
but  I  am  quite  persuaded  that  the  author  is  a  Frenchman." 
He  gave  his  reasons  for  this  opinion,  and  then  went  on  :  "  He 
would  be  right  if  his  assumption  were  correct,  that  "we  really 
did  not  wish  for  Elsass  but  only  for  a  money  indemnity.  It 
will  be  much  better  if  besides  Elsass,  we  have  Paris  also  as  a 
guarantee.  When  a  specific  object  is  wanted,  the  guarantee 
cannot  be  too  great." 

Mention  was  made  of  Boyer,  who  has  excited  much  notice 
in  Versailles  in  his  French  genei-al's  uniform,  which  has  not 
been  seen  here  for  a  long  time,  and  which  was  saluted  by  the 
masses  -with  loud  cries  of,  "  Vive  la  France  /"  It  is  said  that 
he  has  expressed  himself  to  this  effect:  "That  the  army  in 
Metz  adheres  to  the  Emperor  and  will  have  nothing  to  do  with 
the  Republic  of  the  Paris  advocates."  This  is  what  the  Chan- 
cellor himself  said,  and  he  added :  "  The  General  is  one  of 
those  men  who  suddenly  grow  thin  when  anything  excites 
them  ;  he  can  turn  red  too."  He  then  said  :  "  Let  us  remem- 
ber that  Gambetta  meanwhile  urges  war  a  oiitrance  ;  that  the 
Parisian  press  almost  daily  recommends  some  new  infamous 
action  ;*  that  recently,  various  horrible  deeds  of  these  bands  of 

*  The  following  was  not  the  worst  of  them,  in  the  Petit  Journal  of  the 
14th  September.  Thomas  Grimm,  after  complaining  that  the  Prussians 
knew  how  to  plunder  methodically,  and  wreck  by  rule  :  that  they  had, 
everywhere,  at  Nancy,  Bar-le-Duc,  Reims,  Chalons,  and  Troyes,  left  a 
desert  behind  them  ;  that  they  murdered  husbands  and  shot  down  fathers 
to  be  able  to  dishonour  their  wives  and  daughters,  concluded  his  peroration 
with  the  following  tirade :  "  Rise  workmen  !  peasants!  citizens!  Let  the 
Francs-tireurs  be  armed  and  organized,  and  understand  what  they  have  to 
do.  Let  them  gather  in  crowds,  or  in  little  groups,  to  weary  out  and  ex- 
10 


138        Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War. 

Francs-tireurs  have  been  brought  to  light ;  and  let  us  not  forget 
the  proverb,  '  When  the  hunter's  horn  is  heard  in  the  wood  it 
will  soon  be  heard  outside  it.'  The  idea  of  letting  those 
treacherous  Francs-tireurs  off !" 

Count  Bismarck-Bohlen  thereupon  told  us,  that  the  village 
of  Hably,  where  the  Schleswig  Hussars  had  been  attacked 
eight  days  ago  by  Francs-tireurs,  acting  in  concert  with  the 
inhabitants,  and  had  come  back  with  only  eleven  horses,  had 
been  utterly  burned  down,  and  the  Chief,  as  was  reasonable, 
praised  this  energy.  At  the  end  some  one  said  that  quite  re- 
cently, in  the  twilight,  two  shots  had  been  fired  quite  close  to 
our  house,  and  that  one  of  the  men  on  guard  had  been  sent 
out  to  ascertain  the  cause.  "  It  was  a  sentry,  ]>erhaps,"  said 
the  Chief  ;  "  perhaps  some  suspicious  fellow  had  been  seen.  I 
remember,"  he  said,  "  that  the  night  before  last,  when  I  was 
taking  a  turn  in  the  garden,  late,  I  found  a  ladder  and  at  once 
felt  an  irresistible  impulse  to  mount  the  wall.  Suppose,  now, 
a  sentry  had  been  standing  there  1 " 

"  I  had  some  conversation  with  the  sentinel  at  the  door. 
He  had  served  in  the  campaign  of  1866,  and  was  thoroughly 
up  in  it.  I  asked  him  whether  he  thought  that  we  should  get 
into  Paris.  He  said,  yes,  we  could  if  it  were  not  for  the  great 
fort  on  the  left  of  Saint  Cloud.  I  told  him  that  it  would  not 
help  them  much  if  hunger  should  appear  in  the  city." 

In  the  evening,  the  body-guard  with  the  long  beard,  told  me 
in  the  anteroom  below,  '-We  have  got  that  Spaniard,  Doctor." 
"Ah,"  said  I;  "what  Spaniard  do  you  mean?"  "The  man 
who  was  with  his  Excellency  yesterday  or  the  day  before, 
and  his  servant  too.  He  is  a  spy ;  he  has  been  seized,  and  a 
plan  of  the  position  of  our  troops  found  on  him."  I  heard 
afterwards  that  the  man's  name  was  Angelo  de  Miranda. 


haust  the  enemy.  Let  them  imitate  those  who  track  out  wild  animals,  lying 
in  wait  for  them  at  the  edge  of  the  wood,  in  the  ditches,  behind  the  hedges  ; 
let  the  narrowest  footpath  and  the  darkest  corner  serve  for  their  meeting- 
place,  All  means  are  good,  for  it  is  a  holy  war.  The  rifle,  the  knife,  the 
scythe,  and  the  club,  are  permitted  weapons  against  the  enemy  who  falls 
into  our  hands.  Let  us  place  wolf -traps  for  them  ;  let  us  tumble  them  down 
w'ells,  throw  them  to  the  bottom  of  cisterns,  burn  them  in  the  woods,  drown 
them  in  the  rivers,  burn  the  huts  they  are  sleeping  in  over  their  heads.  Let 
us  have  everything  which  can  kill,  iia  whatever  way  it  can  do  it.  Be  on  the 
watch  !    Make  ready  to  fly  at  them  !  " 

The  Combat,  the  organ  of  Citizen  F^lix  Pyat,  wishes  to  collect  subscrip- 
tions for  a  presentation  rifle  to  be  given  to  the  man  who  removes  the  King 
of  Prussia  out  of  the  way  by  assassination. 


French  Enthusiasrin.  139 

About  ten  o'clock,  Moltke  and  another  high  officer,  the  "War 
Minister,  I  think,  came  to  the  Chief  to  confer  with  him,  proba- 
bly on  the  mission  of  Boyer. 

Saturday,  October  15. — In  the  morning  I  wrote  an  article  on 
the  destruction  of  the  Palace  of  Saint-Cloud,  which  was  set  on 
fire  by  the  French  without  any  rational  cause,  whilst  our 
soldiers  busied  themselves  in  saving  the  works  of  art  and  other 
^•aluables.  Then  a  second  on  Jacoby's  imprisonment,  in  much 
the  same  sense  as  the  former  article  on  that  subject,  but  with 
this  addition,  that  in  carrying  out  these  general  principles,  no 
judgment  ought  to  be  passed  on  the  timeliness  of  the  action  in 
taking  this  particular  case. 

About  half-past  two  o'clock,  Boyer  had  another  audience  of 
the  Chief.  Outside,  in  front  of  the  open  ironwork  gates,  a 
number  of  people  waited  for  him,  and  when  he  came  out,  about 
four  o'clock,  they  took  off  their  caps  and  hats  and  cried  "  Vive 
la  trance  !  "  which  the  Minister,  when  this  was  mentioned  at 
dinner,  "could  not  blame  them  for."  I  had  meantime  made  a 
tour  through  the  park  round  the  Palace,  where  I  saw  on  one  of 
the  marble  vases  the  following  poetical  effusion  by  an  angry 
Gaul  on  the  unity  of  feeling  among  the  Germans : — 

"Badois,    Saxons,  Bavarois, 
Dupes  d'um  Bismarck  plein  d'aatuce^ 
Vous  le  faits  bucher  tous  trois 
Pour  le  Roi  de  Prusse. 

•*  J'ai  grand  besoin,  mes  chers  amis, 
De  mourrir  Emi^ereur  d'AJlemagne, 
Que  vos  manee  en  grakuant  la  campagne 
Mais  que  mes  vceus  sent  accomplis."* 

The  same  sort  of  thing  was  to  be  found  on  a  marble  seat  close 
by,  for  the  custom  of  scribbling  on  walls,  benches,  pedestals, 
with  pencils  or  chalk,  seems  to  have  found  many  friends  here. 
On  more  than  ten  walls  in  the  town  I  have  read  during  iJie  last 
few  days,  "'J.  bos  les  Prussiens"  (Down  with  the  Prussians) 
and  worse. 

At  four  o'clock,  a  slight  and  well-dressed  negro  called  on  the 
Minister.  On  his  card  was  "  General  Price,  Envoy  of  the 
Republic  of  Hayti."  The  Chief  regretted  that  he  could  not 
receive  him,  on  account  of  pressing  bnpiness  (Moltke  and  Roon 
were  again  upstairs  with  him)  ;  would   he   be  good  enough  to 

*  I  copied  this  exactly,  errors  included. 


140        Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War. 

write  what  he  wanted  1  About  five  o'clock  the  CroAvn  Prince 
came  to  join  the  conference  of  the  Chancellor  with  the  generals. 
There  seems  to  be  considerable  difference  of  opinion  between 
the  people  here  and  at  Metz. 

On  other  si  les,  too,  there  were  difficulties  in  the  way  of 
carrying  out  what  the  Chancellor  had  in  view  as  a  politician. 
As  he  said  at  table,  "  It  is  very  annoying  that  every  plan  I 
have  must  be  fi^rst  talked  over  with  five  or  six  persons,  who 
understand  very  little  about  the  matter,  and  yet  whose  objec- 
tions I  must  listen  to  and  meet  politely.  Thus  I  have  lately 
had  to  give  up  three  whole  days  to  settle  a  matter  which  under 
other  circumstances  I  could  have  finished  in  three  minutes.  It 
is  just  as  if  I  were  to  give  my  advice  about  the  placing  of  a 
battery  here  or  there,  and  as  if  the  embarrassed  officer  had  to 
give  an  explanation  to  me  who  know  nothing  of  his  business." 
" rhas  an  excellent  head,  and  I  am  convinced  tliat  what- 
ever he  might  have  undertaken  he  would  have  become  some- 
thing exceedingly  respectable  in  it.  But  having  occupied  him- 
self for  years,  only  with  one  and  the  same  thing,  he  has  now 
feeling  and  interest  for  that  alone."  He  did  not  allow  a  single 
word  to  escape  him  about  the  negotiations  with  Boyer,  or  what 
was  likely  to  result  from  them.  Hatzfeld  and  Keudell  too, 
knew  nothing  about  them,  and  only  guessed. 

Sunday,  October  16. — This  morning  in  the  Avenue  de  Saint- 
Cloud,  I  met  Borck  just  arriving,  in  the  uniform  of  a  major. 
He  told  me  that  Soissons  had  fallen,  and  that  the  bombardment 
of  Paris  was  to  begin  on  the  28th.  Almost  the  whole  of  the 
park  of  artillery  has  arrived,  and  in  three  days  they  hoped 
(that  is,  he  did)  to  destroy  it.  The  stout  gentleman  thinks 
that  we  shall  be  back  in  Berlin,  at  the  latest,  by  the  1st  of 
December.  He  said,  too,  that  a  congress  of  princes  in  Ver- 
sailles was  under  serious  consideration,  and  that  they  were 
getting  the  Trianon  ready  for  the  King  of  Bavaria. 

We  learn  that  discord  reigns  in  Paris.  The  E-edg,  under 
Blanqui  and  Flourens,  do  not  like  to  see  the  Blue  Republicans 
at  the  helm — they  attack  them  violently  in  their  papers,  and 
on  the  9th  the  mob  had  uttered  cries  of  "  Vive  la  Co7nmune  !  " 
in  front  of  the  Hotel  de  Ville.  "We  hear  that  Seebach,  who 
was  once,  I  think,  Saxon  ambassador  in  Paris,  and  who  is 
acquainted  with  Leflo  an4  Trochu,  intends  to  offer  the  Chan- 
cellor his  assistance  towards  procuring  an  understanding  with 
the  Parisians. 


Music.  141 

While  we  were  taking  our  coffee  Keudell  played  some  soft 
music  to  the  Minister  on  the  piano.  In  answer  to  my  enquiry 
whether  the  Chief  was  musical,  he  said,  "  Certainly,  although 
he  does  not  play  himself.  You  must  have  remarked  that 
he  sings  softly  when  I  play.  It  is  good  for  his  nerves,  which 
are  much  affected  to-day." 

In  the  evening  the  Nuncio  Chigi  came  with  a  companion 
also  in  clerical  costume.  He  had  a  long  conversation  with  the 
Chancellor,  and  will  go  on  to-morrow  to  Tours.  Of  ambassadors, 
there  are  now  in  Paris,  they  say,  only  the  Belgian,  the  Dutch, 
the  Portuguese,  the  Swiss,  one  from  the  United  States,  and 
some  from  South  America.  The  Spaniard  lately  arrested  here 
is,  to  give  him  his  full  title,  Angelo  de  Yallejo-Miranda,  and  he 
was  arrested,  not  for  the  reason  given  by  the  man  on  guard, 
but  because,  in  Versailles,  he  only  gave  his  first  name,  and  repre- 
sented himself  as  a  Spanish  secretary  of  legation,  whereas  he 
belongs  to  the  Spanish  Debt  Commission.  His  companion, 
who  passed  as  his  servant  was  one  Oswald,  a  joint  editor  of  the 
Gaulois,  which  is  very  hostile  to  us.  By  all  these  lies  and 
misrepre-seiitations  the  gentlemen  had  managed  to  get  them- 
selves suspected  of  being  spies.  He  is  said  to  be  a  friend  of 
Prim,  which  is  very  compatible  with  what  Stiber  said  of  hiTn 
yesterday  in  the  Bureau.* 

After  eleven  o'clock  two  important  telegrams  arrived.  Bour- 
baki,  who  had  gone  from  Metz  to  London,  does  not  return  to 
Metz,  but  places  himself  at  the  disposal  of  the  Government  of 
National  Defence ;  and  next  Wednesday,  Bray  and  Pranckh, 
with  the  approval  of  King  Louis  of  Bavaria,  will  start  for 
Versailles. 

Monday,  October  17. — Two  articles  written  in  the  forenoon. 
Before  dinner  an  excursion  to  the  Grand  Trianon,  where  there 
is  a  beautiful  marble  group  in  the  great  reception  room.  Ita 
is  represented  as  thanking  France  for  the  assistance  given  he, 
against  the  Austrians.  The  Milanese  presented  it  to  Eugenie. 
Delbriick  and  Lauer  dined  with  us.  The  Chief  again  expressed 
himself  very  energetically  in  favor  of  the  inexorable  punish- 
ment of  villages  which  had  been  guilty  of  treachery.  They 
must  be  made  responsible  if  a  traitorous  attack  takes  place  in 
them.     Othervvise  what  will  become  of  our  poor  soldiers  ] 

*  The  fellow  was  afterwards  taken  to  Mainz.  Here  he  gave  his  word  of 
honor  not  to  escape,  in  order  that  it  might  not  be  necessary  to  resort  to 
imprisonment.     But  after  a  few^  days  he  nevertheless  ran  away. 


142        Bismarck  in  tJte  Franco-German  War. 

The  discussion  now  turned  on  things  culinary,  when  it  ap- 
peared that  the  Chancellor  liked  good  mutton,  and  preferred 
the  part  of  beef  called  in  Berlin  the  "  brisket."  He  did  not  care 
much  for  fillet  or  for  roast. beef. 

In  the  evening,  we  were  warned  to  pack  up  our  tninks,  and 
in  case  there  should  be  an  alarm  in  the  night  the  carriages 
were  to  be  drawn  up  in  the  Prefecture,  in  front  of  the  King's 
quarters.     A  sortie  has  been  expected  since  yesterday. 

Tuesday,  October  18. — Tlie  night  is  over  and  nothing  has 
happened.  A  splendid  aiitumn  morning.  I  sent  ofi"  a  contra- 
diction of  the  French  reports  that  our  troops  have  bombarded 
Orleans.  This  is  the  birthday  of  the  Cro"\vn  Prince,  and  the 
Chief  and  tiie  Councillors  go,  about  1 2  o'clock,  to  congratulate 
him.  They  have  sent  us  a  number  of  the  Kraj,  in  which  it  is 
asserted  that  the  Minister  not  long  ago  had  a  conversation  with  a 
nobleman  of  Gallicia,  in  which  he  advised  the  Poles  to  abandon 
the  Austrians.  I  learned,  on  inquiry,  that  this  is  untrue  ;  that 
for  a  long  time  he  has  not  spoken  with  any  Gallician  and  cer- 
tainly with  no  Pole.     I  contradict  the  story  in  the  press. 

The  Chief  breakfasted  with  us  for  once,  and  remarked  (we 
will  not  leave  even  such  little  traits  Tinnoticed)  "  that  he  was 
very  fond  of  hard-boiled  eggs  ;  that  now  he  could  only  manage 
three,  but  the  time  was  when  he  could  make  away  with 
eleven."  Bohlen  boasts  of  having  once  eaten  fifteen  plover's 
eggs.  "  I  am  ashamed  to  say  what  I  have  done  in  that  line," 
replied  his  cousin,  who,  in  conclusion,  recommended  Delbriick 
to  provide  himself  with  hard-boiled  eggs  for  his  journey,  as  he 
is  soon  going  back  to  Germany,  which  Deibriick  declined  to 
do,  as  he  cannot  endure  them  hard-boiled.  The  Chief  then 
read  us  some  of  the  specially  edifying  private  letters  to  the 
Emperor  Napoleon  which  the  Provisional  Government  has  pub- 
lished, with  commentaries  on  them  which  throw  side  lights  on 
the  characters  of  several  personages  in  Berlin. 

Thursday,  October  20. — Both  morning  and  afternoon  I  was 
very  diligent,  and  worked  at  different  articles  and  telegrams. 
At  table  the  conversation  again  turned  on  the  imprisonment  of 
Jacoby  by  the  military  authorities,  and  the  Chief  said,  as  be- 
fore, that  he  had  strong  doubts  whether  the  measure  had  been 
well  timed.  One  of  the  gentlemen  expressed  his  delight  tliat 
"  the  lazy  babbler  was  shut  up."  But  the  Chancellor  answered, 
quite  in  keeping  with  his  usual  feeling,  "  I  do  not  rejoice  at  it 
in  the  very  least.     A  part}'  man  may  do  so  because  his  zeal  for 


French  Sortie.  143 

vengeance  is  satisfied.  The  politician  may  not,  for  in  politics 
he  knows  no  such  feelings.  He  asks  only  whether  it  is  useful 
that  political  adversaries  siJiould  be  ill-used." 

Friday,  October  21. — This  morning,  about  eight  o'clock, 
firing  was  heard  from  the  heavy  artillery,  more  vigorous  and 
long-continued  than  usual ;  but  we  did  not  allow  ourselves 
to  be  disturbed  by  it.  Different  articles  were  prepared  ;  among 
them,  one  on  the  departure  of  the  Nuncio  and  the  other  diplo- 
matists from  Paris.  At  breakfast  Keudell  would  have  it  that 
the  French  had  battered  down  the  porcelain  manufactory  close 
by,  in  Sevres.  Hatzfeld  told  us  that  his  mother-in-law,  an 
American  lady  who  remained  behind  in  Paris,  had  sent  him 
good  accounts  of  the  ponies,  of  which  he  had  often  spoken  to 
us.  They  were  exceedingly  fat.  We  wondered  whether  they 
would  be  eaten.  He  said,  for  heaven's  sake,  let  them  do  it; 
but  he  reserves  the  right  to  get  back  the  price  of  the  animals 
when  the  terms  of  peace  are  settled  with  the  French  Govern- 
ment. 

Meanwhile  the  artillery  fire  outside  continued,  and  between 
one  and  two  it  seemed  as  if  an  action  were  going  on  in  the 
woods  to  the  North  of  the  city.  The  firing  became  still  more 
vehement  ;  the  cannon  shot.s  followed  each  other,  bang  after 
bang,  and  mitrailleuses  were  also  to  be  heard.  It  seemed  as  if 
a  regular  battle  had  developed  itself,  and  .was  drawing  nearer 
us.  The  Chief  got  into  his  saddle  and  rode  away.  The  rest  of 
us  set  off  in  the  direction  where  the  battle  appeared  to  rage. 
On  the  left,  above  the  wood  through  which  the  road  leads  to  Jardy 
and  Vaucresson,  we  saw  the  well-known  white  clouds  rise  and 
burst  from  the  shells.  Orderlies  galloped  up  the  street.  A 
battalion  marched  off  to  the  scene  of  action.  The  fighting  last- 
ed till  past  four  o'clock.  Then  we  heard  only  a  few  single  shots 
from  the  great  fort  on  Mont  Valerien,  and  at  last  tliis  too  was 
silent.  We  now  learned  that  the  French  had  not  been  so  near 
us  as  they  seemed  :  their  sortie  had  been  directed  against  our 
positions  at  La  Celle  Saint-Cloud,  and  Bougival, — villages, 
the  first  of  which  was  at  least  four  miles  from  Versailles,  and 
the  second  seven.  During  the  afternoon  there  was,  of  course, 
great  excitement  among  the  French  in  the  to^vn,  and  the  groups 
which  formed  themselves  before  the  houses  expected  every 
moment,  as  the  noise  came  nearer  and  nearer,  to  see  our  troops 
in  full  flight  before  the  Eed-breeches.  Later  in  the  afternoon, 
however,  they  made  long  faces  and  shrugged  their  shoulders. 


144        Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War. 

At  dinner  the  Chief  said  that  he  would  celebrate  his  parlia- 
mentary Jubilee  either  to-day  or  one  day  soon.  About  this 
time  five-and-twenty  years  ago  he  had  become  a  member  of  the 
provincial  diet  of  Pomerania.  "  I  remember,"  he  continued, 
"it  was  frightfully  tedious  there.  I  had,  as  my  first  subject, 
to  treat  of  the  excessive  consumption  of  tallow  in  the  poor- 
house.  Only  to  think  of  the  number  of  stupid  speeches  I  have 
heard  there,  and  afterwards  in  the  National  Diet,  and," — after 
a  pause,  smiling, — "have  myself  made." 

.  We  spoke  of  the  magnificence  of  the  Prefecture  here,  and 
that  it  cost  two  million  francs.  "  None  of  our  public  offices  in 
Berlin  are  to  Idc  compared  with  it,"  remarked  the  Chancellor, 
"  not  even  the  War  Office,  which  however,  is  rather  imposing. 
The  office  of  the  Ministry  of  Commerce  may  also  pass  ;  but  we  of 
the  Foreign  Office — seldom  has  a  Minister  been  so  poorly 
housed.  Where  we  sleep,  the"  room  was  originally  about  twice 
as  big  as  this,  and  out  of  it  they  have  made  three  ;  one  toler- 
able-sized one  for  myself,  a  little  one  for  my  wife,  and  one 
w^here  my  sons  have  slept  hitherto.  When  I  receive  people, 
[  must  do  like  the  small  country  gentry,  borrow  chairs,  and 
turn  everything  about,  even  my  study."  Some  one  joked  about 
the  Chinese  carpet  in  the  great  hall  at  Berlin.  "  Ah  !  you  may 
laugh,"  said  the  Chief ;  "  when  the  State  can  make  no  further 
ase  of  it,  I  shall  buy  it  for  Schiinhausen.  It  is  an  old  friend 
Df  mine  ;  we  have  gone  through  a  good  deal  together,  and  it  is 
really  beautiful  in  its  way." 

Between  half-past  seven  ^nd  half-past  eight,  the  mayor  of 
she  town  was  again  with  the  Minister.  Afterwards  an  article 
apon  the  uncourteous  behavior  of  our  host  at  Ferrieres  was  sent 
:>ff  to  Germany.     It  was  to  the  following  effect : — 

"  In  a  letter  dated  Paris,  Place  de  la  Madeleine,  70,  some 
T)ne  writes  to  the  Countess  Moustier  among  other  untruths  the 
following :  '  The  Prussians  demanded  pheasants  from  us. 
Rothschild  tells  me  that  they  had  some  at  his  chateau,  but  that 
they  wanted  to  beat  the  steward  because  they  were  not  truffled. 
To  every  one  who  saw  the  royal  housekeeping  at  Ferrieres,  the 
impression  of  its  unusual  simplicity  and  of  the  careful  regard 
for  everything  belonging  to  Rothschild  so  predominated,  that 
3omparisons  on  the  treatment  of  the  property  of  this  millionaire, 
who  was  protected  by  the  good  fortune  of  the  King  living  in 
tiis  house,  and  the  inevitable  hardships  a  poorer  man  has  to 
Dear,  forced  themselves  upon  him.     Considering  that  the  pres- 


Tke  French  Baron  Rothschild.  145 

ence  of  the  King  constituted  a  protection,  his  Majesty  did  not 
even  permit  the  game  in  the  park,  including  the  pheasants,  to 
be  shot  so  long  as  he  was  there.  Baron  Rothschild,  formerly- 
Prussian  consul-general,  who  resigned  that  office  in  an  uncourt- 
eous  way,  when  he  still  hoped  for  the  victory  of  France,  had 
not  even  so  much  politeness  as  once  to  inquire  through  his  ser- 
vants, during  the  whole  stay  of  the  King  in  Ferrieres,  about 
the  wants  of  his  royal  guest.  None  of  the  Germans  who  lived 
at  Ferrieres  can  say  that  they  enjoyed  the  hospitality  of  the 
possessor  even  to  the  extent  of  a  piece  of  bread,  and  yet  the 
preceding  proprietor  of  this  seat  notoriously  left  behind  him, 
according  to  the  computation  of  the  stamp  office,  1700  millions 
of  francs.  Should  Baron  Rothschild  really  have  uttered  the 
lying  complainf  against  any  one  quoted  in  the  above  letter,  we 
can  only  hope  that  troops  may  yet  be  quartered  upon  him,  who 
will  make  him  feel  the  difference  between  the  modest  claims  of 
the  Court  and  the  rights  of  troops  in  quarters  in  war  time,  so 
far  as  this  is  possible  for  the  heir  of  1700  millions."  The 
attack  of  the  Parisians,  undertaken  by  some  twenty  battalions 
of  the  line  and  MobUe  guards,  protected  by  the  fire  of  Mont 
Yalerien,  was  directed  chiefly  against  the  village  of  Bougival  on 
the  Seine.  It  was  occupied  by  our  outposts,  who  retired  upon 
their  supports,  and  the  French  made  themselves  masters  of  the 
place,  but  were  soon  afterwards  attacked  and  driven  out  again 
by  one  of  the  divisions  of  the  fifth  German  army  corps.  In 
this  action,  a  considerable  number  of  the  prisoners  and  two 
pieces  of  artillery  fell  into  the  hands  of  our  people.  The 
prisoners,  some  hundreds  in  number,  passed  through  the  town 
to-day,  which  led  to  disturbances,  so  that  the  Yellow  Dragoons 
were  forced,  it  is  said,  to  charge  the  crowd  and  strike  them 
M-ith  the  flat  of  their  swords. 

The  Chief  said  yesterday  evening,  that  we  ought  not  to  allow 
groups  to  be  formed  in  the  streets  during  a  battle  ;  that  the 
inhabitants  should  be  required  in  such  cases  to  remain  in  their 
houses,  and  that  the  patrols  must  be  ordered  to  fire  at  once  on 
those  who  offered  any  opposition,  which  has  now  been  done.  To- 
day the  commandant  of  Versailles,  von  Voigts  Rhetz,  proclaim- 
ed, that  after  the  alarm  signal  all  inhabitants  of  the  town  ai-e 
to  go  home  -vvithout  delay,  and  that  the  troops  have  been  ordered 
to  use  their  arms  against  those  who  disobey. 

Before  dinner,  accompanied  by  Bucher,  drove  through  the 
forest    of  Fausses  Reposes  to  the  little  tovra   Ville  d'Avray, 


146        Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War. 

pleasantly  situated  between  Se\Tes  and  Saint-Cloud,  to  visit 
the  Ville  Stem,  whence  a  good  view  of  Paris  is  to  be  had. 
The  sentry  posted  there,  however,  did  not  admit  us ;  but  we 
found,  on  the  other  side  of  the  valley,  close  to  a  park,  a 
thatched  summer-house,  which  answered  our  purpose.  Across 
the  suburbs  of  Paris  we  saw  with  the  naked  eye  a  great  part  of 
the  city  itself  lying  in  the  yellowish  evening  light,  with  the 
straight  white  line  of  the  enceinte,  the  dome  of  the  Invalides,  with 
its  golden  ring,  the  low  towers  of  Notre  Dame,  the  cupola  of 
the  Pantheon,  and,  quite  on  the  right,  Val  de  Grace.  While 
we  were  watching  the  scene,  a  train  passed  over  the  viaduct 
near  the  ramparts. 

On  starting  for  our  drive  to  Ville  d'Avray,  I  saw  Bennigsen 
coming  down  the  Rue  de  Provence,  and  when  we  returned  we 
found  that  he  had  left  his  card  on  the  Chief.  The  latter  dined 
to-day  at  four  o'clock  with  the  King,  and  then  made  his  ap- 
pearance at  our  table  for  half  an  hour.  It  was  mentioned  that 
Metz  would  probably  surrender  in  the  course  of  the  next  week. 
Famine  had  appeared  in  the  city,  which  suffered  also  from  a 
want  of  salt.  "  Deserters  eat  it  by  spoonfuls,  in  order  to 
restore  the  necessary  quantity  to  their  blood,"  said  the  Chief. 
Prince  Friedrich  Karl  desires  a  capitulation,  if  I  understand 
rightly,  on  the  conditions  of  Sedan  and  Toul,  but  the  Chancel- 
lor, from  political  motives,  is  disposed  to  a  "(milder  treatment  of 
the  garrison,  and  the  King  appears  to  hesitate  between  the 
two. 

The  Chief  said  yesterday  to  the  Mayor  of  Versailles,  "  No 
Elections,  no  Peace  ;  but  the  gentlemen  in  Paris  will  not  hear 
of  them.  The  American  generals  who  went  into  Paris  to  sug- 
gest this  told  me  that  nothing  was  to  be  done  with  them. 
Trochu  had  only  said  they  were  not  yet  so  far  reduced  as  to  be 
obliged  to  negotiate,  while  the  others  would  not  hear  of  any 
elections,  or  of  the  country  being  appealed  to."  "  I  then  said 
to  the  Mayor,  finally.  No  other  course  will  be  left  to  us  but  to 
come  to  terms  with  Napoleon,  and  to  force  him  upon  them 
again.  This  he  thought  we  should  not  do  ;  a  greater  insult 
could  not  be  offered  them.  I  replied  that  it  might  become  the 
interest  of  the  conqueror  to  leave  the  conquered  to  a  power 
which  could  only  support  itself  by  the  army,  for  in  that  case 
they  would  not  be  able  to  think  of  foreign  wars.  I  advised 
him,  in  conclusion,  not  to  give  way  to  tlie  mistaken  idea  that 
Napoleon  has  no  roots  in  the  country.     He  has  the  army  on 


Garibaldi  and  France.  147 

his  side.  Boyer  treated  with  me  in  the  name  of  the  Em- 
peror Napoleon,  and  it  is  still  a  question  how  far  the  present 
Government  has  really  struck  root.  In  the  flat  country  districts 
there  were  few  who  did  not  feel  that  they  ought  to  think  of 
peace.  The  Mayor  then  gave  me  his  own  ideas  of  a  peace  ;  the 
razing  of  their  fortresses  and  of  ours,  disarmament  on  both 
sides,  in  proportion  to  the  population,  and  so  forth.  These 
people  have  not  yet,  as  I  told  him  from  the  beginning,  any  suf- 
ficient notion  of  what  the  war  is." 

The  Nouvelliste,  as  it  is  now  the  only  newspaper  food  of  the 
people  of  Versailles,  and  naturally  does  not  ask  too  much  of  them, 
is  not  despised  here.  L.  reports  that  the  number  of  the  copies 
sold  varies  ;  that  of  some  numbers  no  copies  remain  ;  of  others 
from  thirty  to  fifty,  and  of  the  number  before  the  last  a  hun- 
dred and  fifty  are  left  in  his  hands.  His  weekly  account,  how- 
ever, hitlterto  shows  no  loss. 

In  the  evening  I  wrote  an  article,  to  show  that  the  election 
of  a  body  representative  of  the  will  of  France  is  the  first  con- 
dition which  the  Chancellor  proposes  to  the  difierent  parties 
who  have  treated  with  him  on  the  subject  of  peace.  He  has 
made  the  same  demand  of  the  <;missaries  of  the  Republicans, 
the  Imperialists,  and  of  a  third  party.  He  will  facilitate  in 
every  possible  way  such  an  appeal  to  the  people.  The  form  of 
Government  is  absolutely  indifferent  to  us  ;  only  we  must 
have  a  real  Government  to  deal  with,  recognized  by  the 
nation. 

Sunday,  October  23. — The  following  thoughts  -will  appear  in 
a  French  dress  in  the  Nouvelliste  of  to-day  :  "  Things  are  con- 
stantly met  with  in  the  present  day  in  France  which  are  flag- 
rantly opposed  to  sound  sense  and  moral  feeling.  People  who 
were  formerly  Papal  Zouaves,  not  merely  those  who  by  their 
nationality  are  French,  become  at  once  soldiers  of  a  republic 
which  is  governed  by  Voltairians.  Garibaldi  makes  his  appear- 
ance in  Tours,  and  offers,  as  he  himself  expresses  it,  what  is  left 
of  him  to  the  service  of  France.  He  has,  probably,  not  forgotten 
that  this  same  France,  twenty  years  ago,  crushed  the  Roman 
Republic  by  force  of  arms,  and  he  must  have  a  still  fresher 
recollection  of  the  strange  events  of  Mentana.  He  must  dis- 
tinctly remember  that  Nice,  his  own  birthplace,  was  torn  by 
this  same  France  from  Italy,  and  that  the  State  of  Siege  alone 
keeps  it  at  this  moment  from  withdrawing  itself  from  the  rule 
of  France." 


148        Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German   War. 

About  one  o'clock  the  ^linister  of  Wiirttemberg,  Mittnacht 
and  Suckow,  paid  their  visit  to  the  Chanceilor. 

I  had  seen  soldiers  brought  from  the  hospital  to  the  church- 
yard several  times  these  afternoons — three  the  day  before  yester- 
day ;  two  yesterday.  To-day  a  long  procession  came  from 
the  Palace  across  the  Place  d' Amies  into  the  Rue  Hoche. 
There  were  five  biers.  On  the  first,  under  a  black  pall,  an  of- 
ficer of  the  47th  Regiment ;  and  on  thg  others,  covered  with 
white  sheets,  common  soldiers.  A  band  of  music,  in  front, 
played  a  chorale  ;  then  followed  the  muffled  drums.  There 
was  a  minister  with  the  procession.  As  the  coffins  passed  by 
the  French  took  off"  their  hats  and  caps — a  touching  custom  ! 

At  dinner  Delbriick  directed  attention  to  the  fact,  that  the 
Prussian  officials  here  felt  the  necessity,  very  soon  after  their 
institution,  of  devoting  themselves  seriously  to  the  duties 
committed  to  their  care,  to  discover  what  was  best  for  the  in- 
habitants placed  under  their  charge,  and  to  secure  the  preser- 
vation of  order  in  the  districts  assigned  to  them,  except  where 
our  interests  are  directly  concerned.  Thus,  for  instance, 
Brauchitsch  is  exceedingly  put  out  at  the  quite  shameless 
thieving  of  wood  carried  on  in  the  forests  here,  and  wishes 
to  take  vigorous  measures  against  these  malpractices,  in  the  in- 
terest of  the  French  Ministry  of  Woods  and  Forests.  We 
learned  that  Freydorff",  Jolly,  and  a  third,  whose  name  escaped 
me,  were  soon  to  be  expected  from  Baden,  and  this  led  to  our 
speaking  of  XJsedom. 

Delbriick  mentioned  that,  in  the  preliminary  negotiations 
upon  a  new  organisation  of  Germany,  Bavaria  had  raised  a  claim 
to  a  kind  of  joint  representation  of  the  Bund  in  foreign  countries, 
of  such  a  character  that,  if  the  Prussian,  or  rather  the  German, 
ambassador  were  absent,  the  Bavarian  might  transact  business. 
The  Chief  said,  "  No ;  anything  else  but  that, ;  for  unless  we 
are  to  have  two  Ministers  of  Foreign  Affairs  for  Germany, 
everything  must  depend,  not  on  the  ambassador,  but  on  the  in- 
structions he  receives."  On  this  matter  he  dwelt  at  greater 
length,  and  explained  it  by  examples. 

Monday,  October  S4- — In  a  telegi'am  from  England  intended 
for  Wilhelmshohe,  there  occui'red  this  passage:  "Much  time 
will  be  lost,  I  am  afraid."  "  Is  lost,"  the  Chief  wrote  on  the 
margin  with  his  pencil.  I  sent  a  notice  to  be  forwarded  to  the 
English  newspapers  upon  the  murder,  in  Rochefort,  of  Captain 
Zielke,  of  the  German  ship  Flora. 


The  Reds  in  Marseilles.  149 

Strange  news  arrived  from  Marseilles,  The  Reds  appear  to 
have  gou  the  upper  hancL  Esquiros,  the  resident  prefect  of  the 
Mouths  of  the  Rhone,  belongs  to  the  theatrical  section  of  the 
French  Republicans.  He  has  suppressed  the  Gazette  du  Midi, 
because  the  clubs  of  his  party  asserted  that  the  paper  favored 
the  candidature  of  the  Comte  de  Chambord,  whose  proclama- 
tion it  had  printed.  He  has,  moreover,  expelled  the  Jesuits. 
A  decree  of  Gambetta  hereupon  dismissed  the  prefect,  and  an- 
nulled the  measures  against  the  newspaper  and  against  the 
Jesuits ;  but  Esquiros,  supported  by  the  working  men,  has 
paid  no  attention  to  these  orders  of  the  Government  in  Tours. 
He  keeps  his  post,  the  Gazette  du  Midi  remains  suppressed,  and 
the  Jesuits  are  still  expelled,  Nor  was  more  regard  paid  to 
the  decree  of  Gambetta  which  dissolved  the  Citizens'  guard,  re- 
cruited from  the  ranks  of  the  Red  Republicans  and  which  is 
distinct  from  the  National  Guard  of  Marseilles,  The  Chief 
said,  "  Well,  civil  war  seems  already  to  have  begun  there  and 
possibly  there  may  soon  be  a  Republic  of  the  South."  I 
worked  up  these  accounts  for  some  articles  -svritten  in  the  spirit 
of  this  comment. 

About  four  o'clock,  a  M,  Gautier,  who  came  from  Chisle- 
hurst,  called  on  the  Chancellor,  ,  .  .  We  have  to-day  Count 
Waldersee  at  dinner  ;  the  Chief  dines  with  the  King.  In  the 
evening,  between  seven  and  eight,  a  great  fire  must,  we  think, 
have  broken  out  in  Paris;  the  whole  northern  heaven  was  over- 
spread with  a  red  glare,  and  in  fact  I  see,  above  the  woods  to 
the  north  of  the  city,  the  reflection  of  an  enormous  burning. 
However,  gradually  it  was  evident  that  we  were  deceived.  The 
red  light  grew  into  shapes,  pillar-like  beams  shot  out  from 
it,  and  at  last  we  became  aware  that  it  was  the  Northern 
Lights,  which  streamed  magnificently  above  the  horizon. 
This  is  a  sure  sign  that  we  shall  soon  have  winter  and  dry, 
cold  weather. 

Sunday,  October  25. — Good  news  received  and  sent  out. 
Yesterday  the  fortress  of  Schlettstadt  capitulated,  and  the  day 
before.  General  Wittich  with  the  22nd  division  occupied  Char- 
tres.  Among  the  fragments  of  the  French  Army  of  the  Loire, 
according  to  a  letter  from  Tom's,  great  want  of  discipline  pre- 
vails. Drunken  soldiers  are  said  often  to  refuse  obedience  to 
their  officers,  whom  they  accuse  of  incapacity  and  treachery. 
The  surrender  of  Metz  will  take  place  to-morrow  or  the  day 
after,  and  portions  of  the  German  armies  detained  there  will 


150        Biaviiarck  in  the  Franco-Gei'man  War. 

be  able  in  eight  days  to  support  the  troops  fighting  in  the  dis- 
trict of  the  Loire.  This  morning  the  Chief  said,  in  reference 
to  the  article  in  the  Pays,  which  placed  the  war  indemnity  at 
one  and  a  half  milliards,  *'  Nonsense,  I  will  require  much  more 
from  them." 

During  dinner  to-day,  the  conversation  turned,  I  cannot  now 
say  how,  upon  William  Tell,  and  the  Minister  confessed  that 
even  as  a  boy  he  could  never  endure  him,  first,  because  he  had 
shot  at  his  son ;  next,  because  he  had  killed  Gessler  in  an  as- 
sassin-like manner.  "It  would  have  been  far  nobler  and  more 
natural,"  he  added,  "  if,  instead  of  shooting  at  the  boy,  whom 
the  best  of  marksmen  might  have  hit  instead  of  the  apple,  he 
had  once  shot  the  Landvogt  himself."  "  This  would  have  been 
just  anger  at  a  cruel  demand.  Tell's  hiding  himself  and  lying 
in  wait  for  Gessler  does  not  please  me.  It  is  not  becoming  in 
a  hero,  not  even  in  Francs-tireurs." 

Two  copies  of  the  Nouvelliste  are  stuck  up  at  different  street 
corners,  and  although  people,  when  they  stand  to  read  it  in 
groups,  criticise  it  when  the  Germans  are  passing,  with  "  Men- 
songe  " — "  Impossible,"  yet  they  read  it.  To-day  some  one  had 
written  on  the  copy  near  the  prefecture,  "Blague,"  but  Stieber's 
people  or  other  watchers  had  seized  the  fellow  in  the  act.  He 
was  an  artisan,  and  it  is  said  that  he  is  to  be  deported  to 
Germany. 

Wediwsday,  October  26. — In  the  morning,  I  translated 
Granville's  despatch  for  the  King,  and  afterwards  extracted  a 
portion  of  it  for  the  press,  accompanying  it  with  the  remai'k 
that  we  had  already  twice  offered  a  truce  under  favorable 
conditions  through  Favre,  and  on  October  9  through  Burnside, 
but  that  they  had  refused  it,  simply  because  we  offered  it.  I 
then  telegraphed  to  London  that  Theirs  had  received  a  free 
pass  to  our  headquarters,  and  the  permission  to  go  thence  to 
Paris.  Further,  that  the  Comte  de  Chambord  had  had  a 
meeting  at    Coppet  with  the  Comte  de  Paris. 

In  the  afternoon,  when  the  Chief  had  ridden  out,  I  went, 
accompanied  by  B.,  an  Englishman,  who  writes  for  the 
Inverness  Courier,  and  an  American  war  correspondent  of  a 
paper  in  Chicago,  to  a  farm  near  the  Chateau  Beauregard,  in 
order  to  visit  H.,  who  had  recovered  from  the  wound  which  he 
had  received  at  "Worth,  and  rejoined  his  regiment,  the  forty- 
sixth.  We  met  there  a  number  of  officers,  nice  bright  fellows, 
with  whom  we  soon  became  intimate  and  had  much  pleasant 


The  Fall  of  Mctz.  151 

talk,  Bl.,  meantime  di-ove  to  Bougival  ^vith  First-Lieutenant 
von  H, ;  and  as  they  were  later  in  returning  than  they  had 
promised,  I  was  too  late  for  dinner  at  home,  which  the  Chief 
does  not  approve  of.  He  only  asked,  however,  at  table : 
"Where  can  little  Busch  bel"  [Wo  das  Duschchen  sei?)  And 
when  he  returned  later  from  the  King  he  again  asked  if  I  was 
tiip..f>  njid  expressed  apprehension  that  the  sentries  might  fire 
on  me* 

1  aesday,  October  27. — The  capitulation  of  Metz  will  prob- 
ably be  signed  in  the  course  of  to-day.  The  whole  army  there, 
including  the  officers  of  all  grades,  will  be  sent  prisoners  to 
Germany,  whither  we  shall  then  have  transported — "vs-ith  the 
exception  of  about  60,000  men — the  entire  army  of  Imperial 
France.  In  the  morning  I  telegraphed  that  it  was  observed  by 
our  troops  before  Paris,  that  an  artillery  fire  had  been  opened 
from  Montmartre  upon  the  suburb  of  La  Villette.  Musketry 
fire,  lasting  for  hours,  had  also  been  heard  in  the  streets  ;  per- 
haps a  rising  of  the  Radicals.  I  then  wrote  a  second  article 
upon  the  interference  of  Beust  in  our  afiairs  with  France. 

In  the  evening,  Hatzfeld  told  us  that  he  had  been  to-day  at 
the  outposts,  where  a  nufliber  of  American  families  had  arrived 
from  Paris,  determined  to  turn  their  back  upon  the  besieged 
city,  in  which  things  had  become  uncomfortable.  There  were 
a  dozen  carriages  of  them  with  white  flags,  taking  the  road  to 
Villejuif ;  the  members,  too,  of  the  Portuguese  embassy  have 
now  left  Paris  on  their  way  to  Tours. 

Friday,  October  2S. — In  the  course  of  the  afternoon  Moltke 
telegi'aphed  to  the  Chief,  that  the  capitulation  of  Metz  had 
been  signed  to-day  at  12.45.  The  French  army  thus  captured 
numbers  all  in  all  173,000  men,  of  whom  16,000  are  sick  and 
wounded.  Von  Bennigsen,  von  Friedenthal,  and  von  Blank- 
enburg,  the  last  a  friend  of  the  Chiefs  youth,  dined  with  us. 
From  the  French  officers  who  had  become  our  prisoners  at  Metz, 
and  their  deportation  to  Germany,  the  conversation  turned 
upon  General  Ducrot  and  his  shameful  flight  from  Pont-a- 
Mousson,  "Yes,"  said  the  Minister,  "he  has  written  me  a 
long  letter  in  which  he  explains,  that  the  reproaches  which  we 
make  against  him  for  his  treacherous  escape,  were  unfounded  ; 
but  in  spite  oi  this  I  adhere  to  my  former  opinion."  He  then 
related  that  a  negotiator  from  Gambetta  had  been  with  him 
recently,  who  asked  him  at  the  end  of  tha  conversation,  whether 
he  would  recognize  the  Republic.      "Without  doubt  or  hesita- 


152         Bismarck  in  the  Fiunco-German  War. 

tion,"  I  replied ;  "  not  merely  a  Republic,  but  if  you  like  a 
Gambetta  Dynasty,  only  that  dynasty  must  give  us  a  secure  and 
advantageous  peace  " — "and,  in  fact,  any  dynasty,  whether  of 
Bleichruder  or  of  Rothschild,"  he  added,  whereupon  these  two 
gentlemen  became  for  a  short  time  the  subject  of  conversation 
with  his  guests. 

In  the  evening  comes  L.,  as  usual,  to  get  information  for 
himself.  I  heard  from  him  that  Legationsrath  Samwer,  once 
premier  of  Duke  Frederick  VIII.,  has  followed  his  late  and 
present  master  hither,  and  has  been  staying  here  for  some  time. 
He  provides  correspondents  of  newspapers  with  news.  The 
Nouvelliste  is  to  depart  this  Life.  A  journal  of  more  imposing 
form  will  take  its  place,  to  be  called  the  Moniteur  Officiel  de 
la  Seine-et-Oise,  and  will  appear  at  the  expense  of  the  Govern- 
ment. 

Saturday,  October  29. — In  the  transfoi-mation  of  the 
Nouvelliste  to  the  Moyiiteur  Officiel,  certain  preliminaries  do 
not  appear  to  have  been  well  arranged,  or  there  is  some  intrigue 
on  hand.  This  morning,  whilst  I  was  at  work,  a  M.  Theodor 
N.,  collaborateur  dto  Moniteur  Officiel  de  la  Seine- A-Oise,  sent 
in  his  card  to  me.  Following  his  car4  came  a  young  man,  who 
said  he  had  been  sent  to  me  by  the  Prefect,  and  wished  to  get 
from  me  notes  for  leading  articles.  I  remarked  to  him  that  L. 
was  sufl&cient  for  this  object ;  that  he  would  remain  with  the 
journal  in.  his  old  capacity,  and  that  I  could  only  communicate 
with  him  at  the  request  of  the  Chancellor.  He  asked  whether 
he  should  tell  the  Prefect  that  he  might  converse  on  this  matter 
with  Count  Bismarck.  "  The  Prefect  must  be  perfectly  aware 
that  I  can  say  nothing  to  such  a  request." 

At  breakfast  St.  Blanquart  said  he  knew  that  Thiers  would 
come  to  us  to-morrow,  and  Bcilsing  afterwards  asserted  that 
preliminaries  of  peace  were  in  the  very  air.  We  shall  take 
the  liberty  to  doubt  it  till  the  Chief  intimates  the  good  news. 
"We  hear  also  that  Moltke  has  been  made  a  "  Count,"  and  that 
the  King  has  made  the  Crown  Prince  and  his  nephew,  the  con- 
queror of  Metz,  field-marshals. 

At  dinner  the  Chief  asked,  when  we  were  about  to  attack 
the  soup,  whether  this  were  not  pease  sausage  soup,  and  when 
he  was  told  it  was  he  praised  it  as  quite  excellent,  an  opinion 
in  which  Delbriick  agreed.  Then  the  talk  was  of  the  great 
success  at  Metz.  "  This  just  doubles  the  number  of  our  prison- 
ers," said  the  Minister.     "  No,  it  does  more  ;  we  have  now  in 


A   Whist  Party.  153 

Germany  the  army  which  Napoleon  hacl  in  the  field  at  the  date 
of  Weissenburg,  Worth,  and  Saarbriicken,  with  the  exception 
only  of  those  who  have  been  killed.  Those  whom  the  French 
now  have,  have  been  brought  since  from  Algiers  and  Rome,  or 
are  new  levies.  To  these  may  be  added  Vinoy,  who  escaped 
before  Sedan  Avith  a  few  thousand  men.  Their  generals  are 
almost  all  prisoners." 

He  then  said  that  x^apoleon  had  asked  for  Marshals  Bazaine, 
Leboeuf,  and  Canrobert,  who  were  in  Metz,  to  be  sent  to  Wil- 
helmshohe.  "  If  this  is  a  whist  party,"  said  he,  "  I  have  noth- 
ing to  say,  and  vriW  recommend  it  to  the  King."  Then  he  said 
that  so  many  strange  things  happen,  which  nobody  before  could 
have  di'eamt  of,  that  we  may  consider  the  most  wonderful 
things  as  possible.  "  It  might  be  possible,  for  instance,  that 
we  should  hold  the  German  Imperial  Diet  at  Versailles,  whilst 
Napoleon  assembled  the  Corps  Legislatif  and  the  Senate  at 
Gassel  to  consult  about  peace.  jSTapoleon  has  the  conviction, 
against  which  not  much  is  to  be  said,  that  the  old  national  re- 
presentation still  subsists  de  jure,  and  that  he  may  summon  it 
to  meet  where  he  will,  of  coui-se  only  in  France.  About  Cassel 
there  might  be  some  dispute."  He  then  remarked  that  he  had 
summoned  hither  Friedenthal,  Bennigsen,  and  Blankenbxirg, 
the  representatives  of  parties  Avith  whom  one  is  bound  to  con- 
sult, in  order  to  hear  their  opinion  about  the  meeting  of  our 
Parliament  in  Versailles.  "  The  '  Fortschritt '  (Progress)  party 
I  must  disregard,  for  they  want  only  what  is  not  possible ; 
they  are  like  the  Russians,  who  eat  cherries  in  winter  and  will 
have  oysters  in  summer.  When  a  Russiam  comes  into  a  shop, 
he  asks,  ^Xak  nje  bud,'  which  means,  'What  is  there,  out  of 
season  ]' " 

After  the  first  course  Prince  Albrecht,  the  father,  with  his 
adjutant  was  introduced  and  sat  down  at  the  right  hand  of  the 
Chief,  in  the  first  place  to  drink  a  glass  of  Magdeburg  beer 
with  us  (a  present  to  the  Chief,  and  exceedingly  good),  and 
then  champagne.  The  old  gentleman  had  pressed  on  even  as 
far  as  Orleans  with  his  cavalry,  like  a  genuine  Prussian  Prince, 
ever  bold  and  true  to  duty.  The  battle  at  Chateaudun  had 
been,  he  said,  a  "  fearful "  one.  He  praised  the  Duke  of 
Meiningen  warmly,  whom  no  dangers  or  Sacrifices  daunted. 
"May  I  ask,"  safd  the  Prince,  "how  the  Countess  is]"  "  Oh, 
she  is  quite  well,  now  that  her  sou  is  better,  only  she  suffers 
still  from  her  bitter  hatred  of  the  Gauls,  all  and  sundry  of 
11 


154        Bisniarck  in  the  Franco-German  War. 

whom  she  would  like  to  see  shot  and  stabbed,  even  the  little 
children,  who  ai-e  not  responsible  for  having  such  horrible  par- 
ents." He  then  spoke  of  the  state  of  Count  Herbert,  whose 
wound  on  the  shoulder  had  at  first  gone  on  very  well,  but  had 
then  become  much  worse,  so  that  the  Physician  thought  that 
the  ball  had  been  poisoned. 


M.  Tiaers.  155 


CHAPTER  X. 


THIERS  AND   THE   FIRST  NEGOTIATIONS  FOE  AN  ARMISTICB. 


ON  October  SO,  as  I  took  a  walk  in  the  early  morning 
through  the  Avenue  de  Saint-Cloud,  I  met  Bennigsen, 
who  was  to  return  home  that  day  with  Blankenburg.  In  reply 
to  my  question  how  far  our  people  there  had  got  with  the 
unity  of  Germany,  he  said  they  had  got  well  on,  and  that  in 
Bavaria  the  only  point  on  which  there  was  any  difficulty  was 
the  separate  position  of  the  military  people.  The  feeling  of  the 
majority  of  the  public  was  all  that  could  be  wished. 

When  I  got  back,  perhaps  a  Uttle  after  ten,  Engel  told  me 
that  Thiers  had  been  there  a  little  before,  but  had  at  once  gone 
away  again.  We  were  told  afterwards  that  he  came  from 
Tours,  and  wished  only  a  safe-conduct  to  enable  him  to  pass 
through  our  lines,  as  he  wanted  to  get  into  Paris.  During 
breakfast  Hatzfeld  told  us  that  he  had  breakfasted  with  him 
at  the  Hotel  des  Reservoirs,  and  had  afterwards  brought  him 
round  in  the  carriage,  which  was  to  take  him  as  far  as  the 
French  outposts  under  the  escort  of  Lieutenant  von  Winter- 
feldt,  and  that  he  was  "the  same  clever  and  amusing  man  as 
ever,  although  as  soft  as  a  baby."  He  had  first  discovered  him 
among  us  in  the  house,  and  told  him  that  the  Chief  was  just 
gettmg  up,  after  which  he  took  him  below  into  the  salon,  and 
reported  his  arrival  to  the  Minister,  who  got  ready  at  once,  and 
came  downstairs  very  soon  after.  They  talked  together  only  a 
couple  of  mjputes,  of  course  alone.  The  Chief  then  summoned 
Hjitzfeld,  and  gave  him  directions  to  make  ready  what  was 
necessary  to  enable  Thiers  to  pay  his  visit  to  Paris.  He  told 
him  afterwards  that  Thiers  had  at  once  said,  after  they  had 
saluted  each  other,  that  he  had  not  come  to  talk  to  him.  "  I 
thiak  that  quite  natural,"  said  Hatzfeld  ;  "  for  though  Thiers 
would  like  greatly  to  conclude  peace  with  us,  it  would  then. 


166        Bismarch  in  the  Franco-German  War. 

of  course,  be  M.  Thiei's'  peace,  and  thougli  he  is  frightfully 
anxious  to  get  the  credit  of  it,  he  does  not  know  what  the 
people  in  Paris  would  say." 

In  the  meantime  the  Chief  went  with  his  cousin  to  the  re- 
view of  nine  thousand  Landwehr  Guards,  which  the  Kiag  held 
this  morning.  Wliile  we  were  still  at  breakfast,  he  came  in 
and  brought  with  him  a  little  round  gentleman  with  smooth- 
shaven  face  and  black-striped  waistcoat,  who  as  we  heard  after- 
wards, was  the  Saxon  Minister  von  Friesen. 

He  dined  with  us  ;  and  as  Delbriick  was  present,  we  had  the 
honor  to  dine  with  three  Ministers.  The  Chief  spoke  first  of 
the  Landwehr,  who  had  arrived  to-day,  and  said  they  were 
broad-shouldered  fellows,  and  must  have  made  an  impression  on 
the  Versaillese.  "  The  front  of  a  company,"  he  added,  "is  at 
least  five  feet  broader  than  a  French  company,  especially  in  the 
Pomeranian  Landwehr."  Turning  then  to  Hatzfeld,  he  said, 
"I  suppose  no  mention  of  Metz  was  made  between  Thiers  and 
you?'  "No,  he  said  nothing  though  no  doubt  he  knew  about 
it."  "Certainly  he  knew,  but  I  did  not  mention  it  either." 
Hatzfeld  then  said  that  Thiers  had  been  very  charming,  but 
that  he  had  lost  none  of  his  old  vanity  and  self-satisfiedness. 
He  had  told  him  for  instance,  how  he  had  met  a  countryman  a 
few  days  ago,  whom  he  asked  whether  he  wished  for  peace. 
"Yes,  indeed,  badly,"  Whether  he  knew  who  he  wasl — "No." 
Well,  he  was  Monsieur  Thiers  ;  did  he  not  know  about  him  1  The 
man  said  "No"  to  that  too.  Then  a  neighbor  came  up,  and  the 
old  countryman  asked  him  who  might  M.  Thiers  be  l  and  was 
told  that  he  must  be  'one  of  them  from  the  Chamber.'  Hatz- 
feld added  that  "Thiers  was  obviously  vexed  that  they  knew  no 
more  than  that  about  him." 

His  Excellency  Friesen,  gave  us  a  good  illustration  of  the 
reckless  haste  with  which  some  of  the  Versailles  people  took  to 
flight  and  of  the  honesty  of  the  German  soldiers.  He  told  us 
that  he  had  found,  to-day,  in  his  quarters,  where  at  least  three 
or  four  sets  of  soldiers  had  been  quartered  previously,  a  com- 
mode unlocked,  in  which  he  discovered,  besides  all  sorts  of 
women's  finery,  caps,  linen,  and  ribbons,  first  one  and  tken 
another  "  rouleau"  of  50  napoleons  each.  He  wanted  to  hand 
over  these  2000  francs  to  the  porter,  who  said  however  that  he 
would  rather  that  he,  Friesen,  should  take  them  himself.  The 
money  was  then  sent,  I  believe,  to  the  office  established  for  the 
safe-keeping  of  such  treasure-trove. 


The  Pen  with  which  Treaty  of  Peaxe  was  Signed.  157 

The  Chief  -vrent  out  of  the  room  for  an  instant  and  came  back 
vith  the  case  in  his  hand  containing  the  gold  pen  presented  to 
him  by  a  jeweller  at  Pforzheim  to  sign  the  treaty  of  peace  -with. 
He  admired  it  greatly,  especially  the  feathers.  This  work  of  art 
was  about  six  inches  long  and  set  on  both  sides  with  small 
brilliants.  After  it  had  gone  round  the  table  and  been  suffi- 
ciently admired  as  it  deserA-ed,  the  Chancellor  opened  the 
di-a wing-room  door,  saying  to  Delbriick  and  Friesen,  "I  am  at 
your  service  now,  gentlemen."  "  Well,"  said  Friesen,  looking 
at  Delbriick  ;  "I  have  been  discussing  the  matter  with  his 
Excellency  in  the  meantime,"  and  they  went  into  the  salon. 
The  rest  of  us  spoke  of  Thiers  again,  and  Hatzfeld  said  that  he 
would  come  back  in  a  day  or  two,  and  that  he  had  not  wished 
to  pass  through  the  gate  on  the  road  from  Charenton  into  Paris. 
"  He  thinks  the  fellows  there  might  hang  him,"  said  Bohlen  ; 
"I  should  like  them  to  do  it."  "What  for?"  we  asked  our- 
selves without  answering  him. 

Monday,  October  31. — I  wrote  several  articles  in  the  morn- 
ing, one  of  them  in  approval  of  the  idea  of  establishing  an 
International  Court  to  sit  upon  the  crimes  of  those  who  had 
urged  on  the  war  against  us ;  and  a  hue-and-cry  after  M. 
Hermieux,  a  French  commander  of  battalion,  who,  like  Ducrot, 
has  broken  his  word  of  honor  by  making  his  escape  from  a 
hospital,  and  is  now  being  pursued  by  warrant  of  caption. 
About  twelve  o'clock  Gauthier  appeared  again,  and  had  a  long 
talk  with  the  Chief.  At  breakfast  we  learned  that  on  the  day 
before,  the  village  of  Le  Bourget,  on  the  east  of  Paris,  which 
fell  into  the  hands  of  the  French  on  the  28th,  had  been  recov- 
ered by  storm.  It  must  have  been  a  severe  struggle.  We 
made  over  a  thousand  "red-breeches"  prisoners,  but  we  lost 
some  three  hundred  men  killed  and  wounded,  thirty  of  whom 
were  officers.  Count  Waldersee's  brother  is  said  to  have  fallen. 
We  then  spoke  of  Thiers ;  and  Hatzfeld  and  Delbriick  wagered 
Avith  Keudell  and  Bismarck-Bohlen  that  he  would  be  back  in, 
Varsailles  before  twelve  o'clock  to-morrow  night.  Both  the 
others  believed  that  the  French  authorities  would  not  let  him 
out.  Hatzfeld  won  his  wager.  He  was  able  to  report  at  tea 
that  the  old  gentleman  had  arrived,  and  that  he  himself  had 
spoken  with  him.  He  had  told  him  that  he  had  been  discuss- 
ing matters  vnth.  the  gentleman  of  the  Pro^dsional  Government, 
from  ten  last  night  till  three  this  morning  ;  that  he  had  got  up 
at  six,  and  spent  las  time  till  two  this  afternoon  in  paying  all 


158        Bismarck  in  the  Franco- German  War. 

sorts  of  visits,  after  which  he  had  driven  back  here.  He  wan- 
ted a  conference  with  the  Chancellor  of  the  Confederation  to- 
morrow morning.  "  He  was  beginning  to  mention, "  said  Hatz- 
feld,  "that  there  had  been  disturbances  in  Paris  yesterday,  but 
an  incautiously  emphatic  'indeed?  which  escaped  me,  made 
him  break  off. " 

Tuesday,  November  1. — In  the  early  morning  twilight  there 
was  tolerably  active  firing  again  from  the  heavy  ^ns.  About 
eleven.  Deputy  Bamberger  paid  me  his  visit.  He  had  taken 
two  whole  days  in  travelling  from  Nanteuil  to  Versailles.  At 
breakfast  we  talked  of  the  battle  of  Le  Bourget,  and  some- 
body said  that  the  French  had  behaved  treacherously,  making 
as  if  they  wanted  to  surrender,  and  when  oui  officers  came  up 
unsuspectingly,  shooting  them  down.  Somebody  spoke  of 
over  1,200  prisoners  we  had  taken,  and  it  was  mentioned  that 
some  of  them  were  Francs-tireurs j  the  Chief  said  "Prisoners! 
That  they  should  ever  take  Francs-tireurs  prisoners  !  They 
ought  to  have  shot  them  down  by  files." 

At  dinner,  besides  Delbriick,  there  was  a  Count  Oriola  in  a 
red  Companion  of  St.  John  uniform,  with  a  great  black  beard 
and  strongly  marked  oriental  features.  This  afternoon  he  had 
been  with  Bucher  at  the  aqueduct  of  Marly,  when  they  had  an 
admirable  view  in  the  evening  light  of  the  fort  which  we  re- 
cently attacked  unsuccessfully,  and  of  a  section  of  Paris.  The 
princely  personages  of  the  Hotel  des  Reservoirs,  the  Dukes  of 
Weimar,  Coburg  and  so  on,  had  also  been  there.  Some  one 
mentioned  Friesen's  treasure-trove,  and  the  order  of  the  War 
Minister  or  of  the  commandant  of  the  town  that  all  articles  of 
value  found  in  the  houses  abandoned  by  their  inhabitants  were 
to  be  publicly  advei"tised,  and  after  a  certain  time,  if  not 
claimed  by  their  owners,  to  be  confiscated  for  the  benefit  of  the 
military  chest.  The  Minister  thought  this  quite  right,  "  For," 
he  added,  "  properly,  such  houses  would  be  burned  down,  but 
that  would  be  an  injury  to  the  rational  people  who  have  stayed 
at  home,  so  that  unfortunately  it  does  not  suit."  He  told  us 
that  Count  Bray  intended  to  pay  him  his  intended  visit  this 
evening.  After  a  while  he  mentioned  that  Thiers  had  been 
with  him  about  midday  for  more  than  three  hours  to  negotiate 
an  ai-mistice,  but  that  they  could  not  agree  on  the  conditions. 
During  the  conversation  Thiers  had  begun  once  to  speak  of  the 
amount  of  provisions  still  left  in  Paris.  He  had  interrupted 
him  there,  saying,  *'  Pardon  me,  but  we  know   better  about 


What  the  Chancellor  Eats.  159 

that  than  you  do.  You  have  been  only  a  day  in  the  city. 
They  have  provisions  till  the  end  of  January."  What  a  look 
of  astonishment !  I  had  only  been  feeling  his  pidse,  but  his 
amazement  betrayed  that  there  was  not  so  much." 

At  dessert  he  spoke  of  the  amount  he  had  eaten.  "To-day 
a  beefsteak  and  a  half,  and  two  slices  of  pheasant.  It  is  a 
good  deal,  but  not  too  much,  as  it  is  my  only  meal.  I  break- 
fast, certainly ;  but  only  on  a  cup  of  tea  without  milk,  and  a 
couple  of  eggs  ;  after  that  nothing  till  the  evening.  If  I  eat 
too  much  then,  I  am  like  the  boa  constrictor,  but  I  can't  sleep." 
"  Even  as  a  child,  and  always  since  then,  I  have  gone  late  to 
bed,  seldom  before  midnight.  Then  I  usually  fall  over  quickly, 
but  I  waken  up  soon  after  to  discover  that  it  is  hardly  more 
than  one  or  half-past,  and  all  sorts  of  things  come  into  my 
bi-ain,  especially  if  any  injustice  has  been  done  me.  I  have  to 
turn  them  all  over.  I  then  write  letters  and  despatches,  nat- 
urally without  getting  up,  in  my  head.  Formerly,  shortly 
after  I  was  first  made  Minister,  I  used  to  get  up  and  write 
them  down.-  When  I  .read  them  over  in  the  morning,  they 
were  worthless,  mere  platitudes,  trivial  confused  stuff,  as  you 
might  find  in  the  Vossische.  I  don't  want  to  do  this,  and 
would  much  rather  sleep.  But  thinking  and  speculating  keep 
going  on  in  my  brain.  When  the  first  grey  dawn  begins  to 
shine  on  my  bed,  I  fall  over  again,  and  sleep  straight  on  till 
ten  o'clock  and  sometimes  later." 

Wedtiesday,  November  2. — Engel  tells  me  that  the  Chief  got 
up  during  the  furious  cannonade  last  night,  which,  however,  is 
nothing  unusual  with  him.  In  the  morning,  before  nine,  I 
take  a  run  out  through  Montreuil  on  the  Sevres  road  as  far  as 
the  i"ailway  viaduct  with  the  five  arches  which  crosses  it  at 
Viroflay.  While  I  was  out,  the  Minister  who  was  still  in  bed, 
had  wanted  me.  When  I  got  home,  about  ten,  Bronsart,  an 
ofiicer  of  the  general  staff,  was  with  him  to  take  him  back  to 
the  King.  After  he  returned  he  told  me  to  telegraph  to  Ber- 
lin and  London  that  Thiers  had  spent  three  hours  with  him 
yesterday,  that  what  was  discussed  in  the  conversation  had 
been  considered  at  a  militaiy  council  at  which  his  Majesty  had 
been  present,  this  morning,  and  that  Thiers  was  to  come  bacK 
to  him  this  afternoon. 

About  two  o'clock  I  saw  him  below  in  the  entrance  hall.  He 
is  belo\r  the  middle  lieight,  with  grey  hair  and  no  beard,  an  in- 
telligent face  which  suggests  sometimes  a  merchant  and  some- 


160        Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War. 

times  a  professor.  As  he  was  likely  to  remain  a  good  while, 
and  there  was  nothing  for  me  to  do,  I  repeated  my  morning's 
excursion,  and  passed  through  the  villages  of  Montreuil,  Yiro- 
flay,  and  Chaville,  the  two  last  forming  one  continuous  street 
about  three  miles  long.  I  came  immediately  after  Chaville  to 
Se-\Tes.  I  wanted  to  go  through  the  great  battery  or  fortifica- 
tion on  the  right,  and  across  the  toAvn,  but  the  sentry  at  a  place 
where  the  roads  divided  would  not  let  me.  No  officer  even, 
he  says,  is  allowed  farther  without  special  permit  from  the 
general.  I  chatted  a  bit  with  the  soldiers  before  the  canteen. 
They  had  been  under  fire  at  Worth  and  Sedan.  Tn  one  of 
these  battles  one  of  them  had  his  cartridge-pouch  exploded  by 
an  enemy's  shot,  and  the  contents  spattered  over  his  face.  An- 
other told  me  how  they  had  recently  surprised  French  soldiers 
in  houses,  and  that  he  had  given  no  quarter.  I  hope  they  were 
iVancs-tireurs.  In  the  villages  along  the  road  there  were 
numerous  public-houses.  Most  of  the  inhabitants  have  stayed 
at  home ;  they  appear,  almost  all  of  them,  to  be  poor  people. 
Very  little  was  to  be  seen  of  the  wreck  which  is  said  to  have 
overtaken  the  French  sugar  places  in  Sevres,  and  the  ruined 
porcelain  manufactory  must  be  a  mere  fable.  The  soldiers  say, 
that  not  more  than  ten  shells  can  have  fallen  there,  and  they 
only  seem  to  have  knocked  a  couple  of  stones  out  of  the  wall 
and  smashed  a  few  doors  and  windows. 

Wlien  I  returned,  about  half-past  four,  to  the  Rue  de  Pro- 
vence, I  learned  that  Thiers  stayed  with  the  Chief  till  a  few 
minutes  before  my  return,  and  that  he  looked  tolerably  con- 
tented when  he  went  away.  The  Chief  went  out  for  a  turn  by 
himself  in  the  garden.  From  four  o'clock  onwards  there  was 
more  heavy  firing.  , 

To-day's  dinner  was  graced  by  a  great  trout  pasty,  the  love- 
gift  of  a  Berlin  restaurant-keeper,  who  sent  the  XDhancellor  of 
tlie  Confederation  a  cask  of  Vienna  March  beer  along  with  it, 
and — his  own  photograph  !  During  dinner  the  Minister  talked 
about  his  visitor,  and  said,  "He  is  an  able  and  likeable  man, 
witty  and  ingenious,  but  with  hardly  a  trace  of  diplomatic 
quality — too  sentimental  for  business.  Beyond  question  he  is 
a  superior  kind  of  man  to  Favre  ;  but  he  is  not  fit  to  make  a 
bargain  about  an  armistice — hardly  fit,  indeed,  to  buy  or  sell  a 
horse.  He  is  too  easily  put  out  of  countenance  ;  he  betrays 
his  feelings ;  he  lets  himself  be  pumped.  I  got  all  sorts  of 
things  out  of  him ;  for  instance,  that  they  have  only  three  or 


The  Armistice  Negotiations.  161 

four  weeks'  provisions  left  inside."  The  Berlin  pasty  reminded 
him  of  the  quantity  of  trout  in  the  Yarzin  waters  ;  and  he  told 
us  how,  some  time  before,  he  had  caught  in  a  pond,  supplied  by 
a  few  little  springs,  a  five-pound  trout,  so  long  (showing  us  with 
his  hands) :  and  all  the  gamekeepers  of  the  neighborhood 
said  that  they  could  not  explain  how  it  got  there  in  a  natural 
way. 

In  connection  with  the  attitude  we  shall  have  to  assume 
about  the  elections  which  must  be  held  in  France,  I  take 
occasion,  in  the  newspapers,  to  remind  people  of  the  follow- 
ing precedent,  which  may  decide  the  matter  for  us,  and  to 
which  we  may  ask  the  attention  of  those  people  who  consider 
the  exclusion  of  Elsass-Lothringen  from  the  voting  something 
unprecedented.  An  American  tells  us  that  in  the  last  war  be- 
tween the  United  States  and  Mexico  an  ai'mistice  was  concluded, 
with  the  view  of  allowing  the  Mexicans  to  elect  a  new  Govern- 
ment, which  might  make  peace  with  the  United  States  ;  and  it 
was  stipulated  that  those  provinces  which  the  States  wanted 
given  up  to  them  shoiild  not  take  part  in  the  election.  This 
is  the  only  precedent  absolutely  on  all  fours  with  ours,  but  it 
certainly  appears  to  be  so. ' 

Thursday,  November  S. — Fine  clear  weather  in  the  morning. 
From  seven  o'clock  onwards,  the  iron  lions  on  Mont  Yalerien 
again  growl  furiously  down  into  the  surrounding  wooded  valleys. 
I  make  extracts  for  the  King  from  the  Morning  Post  of  the  28th 
and  29th.  There  are  two  articles  on  the  Empress  Eugenie,  which 
must  have  been  inspired  by  Persigny  or  Prince  Napoleon.  The 
assertion  they  make,  that  in  our  negotiations  with  her  commis- 
sioners, only  Strassburg  and  a  narrow  strip  of  land  in  the  dis- 
trict of  the  Saar,  with  perhaps  a  quarter  of  a  million  inhabitants, 
were  claimed  by  us,  rests,  the  Chief  tells  me,  on  a  misunder- 
standing. I  am  told  to  telegraph  that,  after  the  Council  of 
yesterday,  the  Chancellor  offered  M.  Tliiers  an  armistice  for 
twenty-five  days  on  the  basis  of  the  military  status  quo. 

Thiers  came  back  about  twelve  and  stayed  with  the  Chief  till 
half-past  two.  The  French  demands  are  exorbitant.  We  learn 
at  breakfast  that  besides  twenty-eight  days'  armistice,  to  allow 
of  the  elections,  of  their  verification,  and  of  the  settlement  by  the 
National  Assembly,  the  Provisional  Government  asks  nothing 
less  than  the  right  to  re-provision  Paris  and  all  the  other 
fortresses  at  present  in  their  possession  and  besieged  by  us,  and 
it  requires  freedom  of  election  in  the  eastern  Departments  to 


162         Bismarck  in  the.  Franco-German  War. 

which  we  lay  claim  as  our  future  possessions.  Re-provisioning 
and  military  status  qtio  differ  a  good  deal  from  each  other,  accord- 
ing to  ordinary  reasoning. 

At  dinner  we  talked  of  the  Berlin  elections,  and  Delbrdck 
thought  they  would  turn  out  better  than  usual,  and  that 
Jacoby,  at  all  events,  would  not  be  re-elected.  Count  Bis- 
marck-Bohlen  said  he  took  a  diflferent  view,  aijd  expected  little 
improvement.  The  Chancellor  said,  "  The  Berlin  people  must 
always  be  in  opposition,  and  have  their  independent  opinion. 
They  have  their  virtues  —  numerous  and  highly  respectable 
ones.  They  think  things  over  ;  but  they  would  feel  themselves 
very  common  persons  if  they  could  not  know  everything  better 
than  the  Government."  That,  however,  he  went  on  to  say,  was 
a  failing  not  peculiar  to  them.  All  large  towns  had  something 
of  it,  and  many  were  much  worse  than  Berlin.  They  were  cer- 
tainly less  pi'actical  than  the  country  districts,  which  had  more 
to  do  Avith  life,  and  more  direct  contact  with  nature,  and 
which  in  this  way  had  more  correct  judgment  of  what  was 
really  possible,  better  corresponding  to  the  facts  as  they  deve- 
loped themselves. 

"When  so  many  people  live  close  together,"  he  said,  "indi- 
vidualities naturally  fade  out  and  melt  into  each  other.  All 
sorts  of  opinions  grow  out  of  the  air,  from  hearsays,  and  talk 
behind  people's  backs  ;  opinions  with  little  or  no  foundation  in 
fact,  but  which  get  spread  abroad  through  newspapers,  popular 
gatherings,  and  talk  in  beer-shops,  and  get  themselves  established 
and  are  ineradicable  There  is  a  second,  false  nature,  an  over- 
growth on  the  first,  a  sort  of  faith  or  superstition  of  crowds. 
People  talk  themselves  into  believing  the  thing  that  is  not ;  con- 
sider it  a  duty  and  obligation  to  adhere  to  their  belief,  and  ex- 
cite themselves  about  prejudices  and  absurdities."  "  It  is  the 
same  in  all  big  towns.  In  London,  for  instance,  the  Cockneys 
are  a  quite  different  race  from  the  rest  of  Englishmen.  It  is 
the  same  in  Copenhagen ;  in  New  York,  and,  above  all,  in 
Paris.  With  their  political  superstitions  they  are  a  very  pecu- 
liar people  in  France  ;  narrow  and  limited  in  their  views,  which 
seem  to  them  to  come  from  some  sacred  source,  but  which  when 
looked  at  closely  are  mere  shifty  phrases."  How  admirably  this 
characterises  what  our  popular  democrats  and  fashionable  poets 
delight  to  call  the  "  Soul  of  the  People." 

The  Minister  told  us  little  about  Thiers,  except  that  shortly 
after  the  commencement  of  their  conversation  to-day  he  had 


Tvjo  Balloons.  163 

suddenly  asked  him  the  question  whether  he  was  yet  provided 
with  the  necessary  full  powers  for  carrying  on  the  negotiations. 
"  He  looked  quite  amazed  at  me,  and  I  told  him  that  our  out- 
posts had  reported  to  us,  that  after  he  set  out  there  had  been 
a  Revolution  in  Paris,  and  that  a  new  government  had  been 
summoned  into  power.  He  was  manifestly  startled,  and  I  in- 
ferred that  he  considered  a  victory  of  the  Eeds  possible,  and 
that  Favre  and  Trochu  had  no  very  secure  footing." 

Friday,  November  Jf. — In  the  morning  the  weather  was  won- 
derfully fine  and  clear.  At  the  request  of  the  Minister  I  an- 
swered the  mis-statements  of  an  article  which  appeared  in  the 
Daily  News  about  his  conversation  with  Napleon  at  Donchery. 
He  had  spent  three-quarters  of  an  hour  at  the  very  least  inside 
the  weaver's  house,  in  the  room  above,  and  was  only  a  very- 
short  time  outside  talking  with  the  Emperor  in  the  open  air,, 
as  he  told  the  King  in  his  official  report.  In  his  conversation 
with  Napoleon  he  never  struck  the  forefinger  of  his  left  hand 
into  the  palm  of  his  right  hand,  as  that  was  not  a  trick  of  his. 
He  did  not  speak  German  with  the  Emperor,  "  though  I  have 
at  other  times,  but  not  then.  I  talked  German,"  he  said,  "  with 
the  people  of  the  house,  as  the  husband  knew  a  little  of  it,  and 
the  wife  knew  it  pretty  well." 

Thiers  is  again  in  conference  with  the  Minister  from 
eleven  o'clock.  Yesterday  he  sent  his  companion,  a  M.  Cochery,. 
into  Paris,  to  learn  whether  the  Government  of  September  Ar 
was  still  in  existence  ;  and  the  answer  given,  as  we  learned  at 
breakfast,  was  Yes.  After  Blanqui  with  his  Reds  had  got  pos- 
session of  the  Hotel  de  Ville,  and  kept  some  of  the  members  of 
the  ministry  prisoners  there  for  several  hours,  Picard  relieved 
the  gentlemen  —  Abeken  says  with  106  battalions,  probably 
with  the  106th  battalion  —  and  the  Government  was  re- 
established. 

I  was  wakened  up  early  with  the  news  that  a  balloon,  com- 
ing from  the  north,  was  passing  over  the  town.  As  the  wind 
was  favorable,  a  second  followed  in  the  afternoon.  The  first, 
was  white,  the  second  was  painted  the  colors  of  the  French  Tri- 
color. Bamberger  was  with  us  at  dinner.  The  Chief  said,. 
"  I  notice  that  the  papers  are  blaming  me  for  putting  off  the 
Bombardment ;  I  am  said  to  wish  nothing  serious  to  be  done 
before  Paris,  and  I  won't  allow  firing  into  the  town.  Rubbish  1 
They  will  some  day  complain  of  me  as  to  blame  for  our  losses; 
during  the  investment,   which  have  certainly   not  been  small. 


164         Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War. 

We  have  lost  here  in  little  skirmishes  more  soldiers  probably 
than  we  should  have  done  had  Ave  stormed  the  place.  That  is 
what  I  wanted,  and  what  I  want  now."  We  talked  then  of 
what  officers  of  the  general  staff  had  previously  said,  that  in 
thirty-six  hours  or  so  they  could  silence  the  two  or  three  forts 
which  would  be  the  first  objects  of  attack.  Afterwards  we 
spoke  again  about  summoning  the  Riechstag  here,  and  the 
Chief  remarked  that  perhaps  the  Customs  Parliament  would 
follow  it.  Among  other  things  of  interest  mentioned  in  the 
course  of  dinner,  Bohlen  told  us  that  an  official  in  Versailles — 
I  think  he  said  an  attorney-general  —  had  been  surprised  in  a 
correspondence  by  letter  with  Paris.  How  he  managed  it  is 
not  known ;  possibly  through  some  secret  outlet  of  the  sewers, 
which  are  said  to  run  under  the  Seine  as  far  as  here  and  then 
across  the  river  to  the  bank  on  this  side. 

At  tea  Bismarck-Bohlen  entertained  us  with  an  anecdote 
from  the  outposts.  A  few  days  ago  a  man  came  to  one  of  the 
commanding  officers  here,  and  went  with  him  into  a  house, 
from  which  he  emerged  immediately  after  in  the  dress  of  a 
Frenchman,  making  his  way  through  the  hedges,  and  at  last 
running  clean  away.  The  sentries  fired  on  him,  but  he  managed 
to  get  safe  to  the  bridge  of  Sevres,  off  which  he  jumped  into  the 
river,  and  by  swimming  and  wading  got  to  the  other  side,  where 
he  was  heartily  welcomed  by  the  French  as  a  brave  friend 
of  his  country.  "He  is  said  to  be  one  of  our  best  spies,"  said  the 
narrator  of  this  anecdote  in  conclusion.* 

Saturday,  November  5. — At  dinner  we  had  none  of  the  Ex- 
cellencies at  first  but  Delbriick,  Afterwards  the  Chancellor 
came  in  ;  he  had  previously  dined  with  the  King.  He  asked 
Engel  to  pour  him  out  a  glass  of  corn-brandy,  and  then  told  us  of 
an  amusing  saying  :  Not  long  ago — if  I  am  not  mistaken  it 
was  in  Ferriferes — a  genei*al  talking  of  drinks,  had  laid  down 
the  principle,  "Red  wine  for  children,  champagne  for  men, 
Schnaps  for  generals."  He  then  complained,  as  he  has  often 
done,  that  certain  eminent  personages  worry  him  with  all  sorts 
of  questions,  and  make  all  kinds  of  claims.  Just  then  a  tele- 
graphic despatch  was  handed  to  him  wlxich  declared  that  Favre 
and  the  other  ministers  in  Paris  had  got  on  their  high  horse 

*  This  anecdote  has  a  suspicious  resemblance  to  another  which  wa^  given 
afterwards  by  the  French  pajiers  in  which,  however,  not  the  French  Imt  our 
people  are  represented  to  have  been  deceived.  The  hero  of  the  anecdote  in 
that  account  was  called  Bonnet,  and  was  a  forester. 


The  Emperor  Napoleon  in  1866.  165 

agaia  and  proclaimed  that  there  could  be  no  question  at  pres- 
ent of  any  territorial  compensation,  that  the  only  duty  of 
Frenchmen  was  the  defence  of  their  country.  The  Chief  .said, 
"  Well,  that  gets  us  rid  of  any  more  negotiations  with  Thiers." 
"Yes,"  said  Delbriick ;  "  with  such  obstinate  imbecility  there 
will  naturally  be  no  farther  talk  about  that."  After  a  little  the 
^Minister  said  to  Abeken,  that  Prince  Adalbert  meant  to  write 
to  the  Emperor  (of  Russia  X)  and  proposed  to  address  him  as 
"my  cousin,"  which  was  not  right.  Taglioni  asked  whether 
the  Emperor  had  first  called  him  so.  "Even  then  he  ought  not 
to  address  him  so,"  said  the  Chief.  "He  should  call  him, 
perhaps,  'my  uncle.' "  Many  German  princes,  even  those  who 
are  not  related  to  him,  address  the  Emperor  as  "my  uncle." 
Finally  he  ordered  an  inquiry  to  be  despatched  by  telegram  to 
Berlin  about  the  usual  form  of  address. 

Somebody  mentioned  that  excellent  wine  had  been  discovered 
in  the  Chateau  Beauregard,  and  that  it  had-  been  confiscated 
for  the  troops.  Bucher  remarked  that  -this  charming  estate 
of  the  Emperor's  had  been  laid  out  for  Miss  Howard.  Some- 
body else  said.  Yes,  but  it  now  belongs  to  a  Duchess  or  Countess 
Bauffremont.  "Tliat  re'minds  me  of  Thiers,"  said  the  Min- 
ister. "  He  probably  means  still  to  -write  something  in 
history.  He  protracted  our  negotiation,  perpetually  dragging 
in  all  sorts  of  extraneous  matter.  He  told  me  what  he  had 
done  or  advised  on  such-and-such  an  occasion,  asked  me  the 
real  situation  of  so-and-so,  and  wanted  to  know  what  would 
have  been  my  course  in  such-and-such  circumstances.  He  re- 
minded me,  for  instance,  of  a  conversation  I  had  with  the  Due 
de  Bauifremont  in  the  year  1S67.  I  had  then  said  that  the 
Emperor  had  not  understood  his  game  in  1866,  that  he  might 
have  got  some  advantage  for  himself,  though  not  in  German 
territory,"  «fec.  "  That  was  substantially  correct.  I  remember 
it ;  it  was  in  the  gardens  of  the  Tuilleries,  and  a  military  band 
was  playing  at  the  moment."  In  1866  Napoleon  had  not  the 
courage  to  take  what  in  his  position  he  would  have  been  entitl- 
ed to  do.  He  might  have — at  that  time  he  should  have — laid 
hold  of  what  was  the  subject  matter  of  the  Benedetti  proposal 
and  held  it  provisionally  as  a  material  guarantee  for  what 
might  happen.  We  could  not  then  have  prevented  him,  and  it 
was  not  likely  that  England  would  have  attacked  him — at  all 
events  he  could  have  awaited  the  issue.  When  we  had  con- 
quered,   he   should    have  set   himself  Vjack  to  back  with  us, 


1G6        Bismarck  in  the  Franco-Oerman   War. 

and  encouraged  us  to  proceed  to  excesses.  But"  (turning  to 
Delbriick)  bending  a  little  forward,  and  then  pulling  himself 
straight  again,  as  his  habit  is  on  such  occasions,  "he  is  as  he 
continues  to  be,  a  Tiefenbacher  (a  respectable  Philistine — 
^Schiller's  Wallenstein. ") 

We  hear  that  Keudell  wants  to  be  a  deputy — if  I  understand 
rightly  he  means  to  come  forward  as  a  candidate  in  the  district 
of  Nieder  Barnim.  After  a  conversation  with  Trochu  and 
Ducrot  on  the  bridge  of  Sevres,  Thiers  came  back  and  had  a 
conversation  with  the  Chief,  lasting  from  half-past  eight  till 
after  half-past  nine.  At  tea  it  was  said  that  Ducrot  and  Favre 
considered  our  conditions  of  armistice  inadmissible,  but  that  the 
opinion  of  their  colleagues  was  to  be  taken,  and  that  Thiers  would 
bring  back  the  final  answer  of  the  Ministry  to-morrow  morning. 

I  interrupt  the  narrative  of  my  diary  to  insert  here  a  few 
matters  which  may  thtow  light  on  what  was  said  above  about 
Napoleon  and  Belgium  in  1866. 

That  France  at  that  time  wanted  to  acquire  Belgium, 
although  in  a  way  requiring  less  resolution  than  that  indicated 
above,  is  well  knoAvn.  An  unanswerable  proof  of  the  fact  was 
the  draft  of  a  treaty  on  the  subject  which  Benedetti  handed  to 
the  Chancellor  of  the  Confederation,  which  was  published  by 
the  Foreign  Office  shortly  before  the  outbreak  of  the  war.  In 
his  book  Ma  Mission  en  Prusse  Bennedetti  attempted  to  disavow 
it.     He  says  there,  p.  197  : 

"It  will  be  remembered  that  on  August  5,  1866,  I  laid  be- 
fore M.  de  Bismarck  the  draft  of  a  treaty  with  reference  to 
the  Maine  and  the  left  bank  of  the  upper  Bhine,  and  I  need 
not  say  that  M.  Rouher  refers  to  this  communication  in  the 
second  paragraph  of  his  letter  on  the  6th.  But  it  also  proves, 
and  this  is  what  it  is  important  to  establish  against  the  assertions 
of  M.  de  Bismarck,  that  nobody  in  Paris  dreamt  of  making 
Belgiiim  pay  for  the  concessions  which  were  indispensable  to 
France,  and  to  use  the  very  words  of  the  Prussian  ambassador, 
*  were  due  to  her.' " 

Count  Benedetti  was  ignorant  when  he  wrote  this  that  dur- 
ing the  war  certain  secret  papers  had  fallen  into  the  hands  of 
the  German  troops,  which  contradicted  him.  But  the  Foreign 
Office  did  not  hesitate  to  use  this  defensive  weapon  against 
him.  On  October  20,  1871,  it  answered  his  disavowal  pretty 
much  as  follows : 


France  and  Belgium.  1G7 

"  He  (Benedetti)  attempts  here,  and  in  the  following  state- 
ments, to  mix  up  two  distinct  phases  of  the  protracted  nego- 
tiations which  the  Prussian  Minister  President  conducted  with 
him  during  several  years.  He  confounds  the  demand  for  a 
cession  of  German  territory  including  Mainz,  which  he  address- 
ed to  the  Minister  President  on  the  5th  and  7th  of  August 
1866,  with  the  later  demand  for  Belgium,  and  attempts  to 
make  the  papers  found  in  the  Tuilleries,  and  already  published, 
relate  solely  to  the  former,  though  that  incident  was  really 
closed  by  the  letter  he  gives  on  page  181  of  his  book,  addressed 
by  the  Emperor  to  the  Marquis  de  la  Valette.  But  the  differ- 
ence in  his  understanding  of  the  two  phases  is  clearly  established 
by  hLs  own  report,  now  in  the  hands  of  the  Foreign  Office. 
He  ^vrote  a  report  on  the  Maine  episode,  on  August  5,  1866, 
the  first  part  of  which  nins  thus  : — 

"  '  M.  LE  Minister, — 

" '  On  my  arrival  I  found  your  telegraphic  despatch 
awaiting  me,  in  which  you  communicate  the  text  of  the  secret 
agreement,  which  you  instruct  me  to  present  for  the  acceptance 
of  the  Prussian  Government.  Your  Excellency  may  rest 
assured  that  I  shall  spare  no  effort  to  secure  that  all  of  these 
instructions  are  favorably  received,  however  vehement  may  be 
the  resistance  which  I  am  sure  to  meet.  Convinced  that  the 
Emperor's  government  is  acting  with  moderation  in  confining 
itself,  in  view  of  the  future  aggrandisements  demanded  by 
Prussia,  to  the  stipulations  for  its  own  security  mentioned  in 
your  draft,  I  should  be  most  unwilling  to  admit  any  modifica- 
tions in  it,  even  to  the  extent  of  reporting  them  to  you  for 
your  consideration.  My  opinion  is  that  in  this  negotiation 
firmness  is  the  best,  I  might  almost  add,  the  only  argument, 
which  I  can  properly  use.  I  shall  .show  my  settled  resolution 
to  reject  every  inadmissible  proposal,  and  I  shall  do  my  best  to 
point  out  that  if  Prussia  denies  us  the  pledges,  which  the  ex- 
tension of  her  territories  forces  us  to  demand  of  her,  she  will 
be  chargeable  with  refusing  to  recognize  what  justice  and  pru- 
dent foresight  require — a  task  which  appears  to  me  easy, 
^lean while,  I  must  also  be  prudent,  and  considering  the  kind 
of  man  the  Minister  President  is,  I  think  it  best  not  to  be  pre- 
sent the  first  moment  when  he  discovers  for  certain  that  we 
demand  the  bank  of  the  Rhine  up  to  and  including  Mainz. 
With  this  view,  I  have  this  morning  sent  him  a  copy  of  your 


168         Bismarch  in  the  Franco-German  Wa7\ 

draft,  and  written  a  private  letter  to  accompany  it,  of  which  I 
enclose  a  copy.  I  shall  try  to  see  him  to-morrow  morning  and  I 
shall  inform  you  of  the  disposition  in  which  I  find  him.'  " 

This  letter  was  followed  by  a  conversation  to  which  Benedetti 
briefly  refers  in  his  letter,  but  in  such  a  way  as  to  avoid  as  far 
as  possible  coming  forward  himself  as  the  narrator;  otherwise 
he  could  not  have  helped  giving  some  indication  of  the  fact  that 
he  himself  approved  of  the  demand  made  by  his  Minister,  and 
cordially  supported  it.  He  replied  to  the  Minister  President's 
observation  that  this  demand  meant  War  and  that  he  w:  uld  do 
well  to  go  off  at  once  to  Paris  to  prevent  the  War,  that  he 
would  go  to  Paris,  but  that  it  was  impossible  for  him  on  his 
own  personal  conviction,  to  recommend  the  Emperor  not  to  per- 
sist in  his  demand,  as  he  himself  believed  that  the  Dynasty 
would  be  in  danger  if  public  opinion  in  France  were  not  satisfi- 
ed by  some  such  concession  on  the  part  of  Germany.  The  last 
expression  of  the  views  of  the  Minister  President,  which  Bene- 
detti took  with  him  on  his  road  back  to  Paris,  was  something  in 
this  fashion. 

"  Point  out  to  his  Majesty  the  Emperor  that  in  certain  circum- 
stances such  a  war  might  have  to  be  fought  with  Revolutionary 
weapons,  and  that  in  presence  of  Revolutionary  dangers,  the 
German  Dynasties  are  confident  that  they  would  prove  them- 
selves more  solidly  established  than  that  of  the  Emperor 
Napoleon." 

These  communications  were  followed  by  a  letter  of  with- 
drawal from  the  Emperor  on  the  l^th,  with  which  the  curtain 
dropped  on  the  demand  for  concessions  of  German  territory. 
Four  days  afterwards  the  second  act  of  the  drama  opens,  in- 
volving Belgium.  In  a  letter  dated  August  16th,  brought  to 
Count  Benedetti  from  Paris  by  a  certain  M.  Chauvy,  which 
contained  "  le  resume  le  plus  succinct  et  le  plus  precis  pos- 
sible "  ("  the  briefest  and  clearest  possible  summary  ")  of  his 
instructions,  it  is  said  : 

"1.  The  negotiation  must  be  of  a  friendly  nature. 

"2.  It  must  be  essentially  confidential  (and  the  persons 
are  expressly  named  to  whom  the  knowledge  of  it  is  to  be 
confined). 

"  3.  According  to  your  prospects  of  success,  your  demands 
will  pass  through  three  successive  stages.  You  must,  in  the 
First  place,  point  out  the  essential  connection  between  the 
questions   of  the  boundaries  of    1814  and   the  annexation    of 


The  French  Secret  Instructians.  169 

Belgium  ;  you  must  require  the  cession  of  Landau,  Saar- 
Louis,  and  Saarbriicken,  and  of  the  Grand  Duchy  of  Luxem- 
burg, in  a  public  treaty,  and  demanded  that  Prussia  shall 
make  a  secret  treaty  of  alliance,  offensive  and  defensive,  one 
article  of  which  shall  authorise  us  ultimately  to  incorporate 
Belgium.  Secondly,  if  it  appears  to  you  impossible  to  secure 
these  bases,  you  must  give  up  Saar-Louis  and  Saarbriicken, 
and  even  Landau,  that  -vHTetched  old  barracks  (vieille  hicoque) 
which  German  sentiment  is  attempting  to  set  up  against  us, 
and  confine  your  public  treaty  to  the  Grand  Duchy  of  Luxem- 
burg, and  your  private  treaty  to  the  incorporation  of  Belgium 
with  France.  Thirdly,  if  the  complete  and  immediate  incoi^por- 
ation  of  Belgium  with  France  raises  too  serious  difficulties,  you 
must  accept  an  article  in  which,  in  order  to  soothe  away  the 
oppositioa  of  England,  you  are  to  consent  to  make  Antwerp  a 
free  town.  But  you  must  in  no  event  allow  the  interference 
of  Antwerp  to  Holland,  or  that  Maestricht  to  Prussia.  Should 
M.  de  Bismarck  ask  what  advantages  such  an  arrangement 
offers  him,  your  answer  will  be  simple  ;  he  acquires  for  him- 
self an  important  ally,  he  secures  aU  his  recent  acquisitions,  he 
consents  only  to  the  taking  away  of  what  does  not  belong  to 
him — in  return  for  the  advantages  which  he  wishes,  he  is  not 
asked  to  make  any  important  sacrifice.  To  sum  up  :  an  osten- 
sible treaty  whieh  concedes  at  least  Luxemburg  to  us  ;  a  secret 
agreement  for  an  offensive  and  defensive  alliance,  permitting  us 
to  incorporate  Belgium  in  which  it  must  be  recognised  as 
essential  that  Prussia  shall  expressly  promise  to  stand  by  us, 
even  to  the  extent  of  armed  support — these  are  the  bases  of 
the  treaty  which  you  are  never  to  lose  out  of  sight." 

Benedetti  replied  to  this  instruction  from  Paris  on  August 
23  in  a  letter  which  is  all  in  his  own  handwriting,  in  which  he 
submitted  the  sketch  of  the  Treaty  which  he  was  charged  to 
negotiate.  This  sketch  is  also  in  his  own  writing.  It  is  now 
i)i  the  possession  of  the  Foreign  Office  in  Berlin,  with  the 
autograph  side-notes  of  the  emendations  made  in  Paris.  After 
these  alterations  it  agi'ees  entirely  with  the  copy  which  Bene- 
detti laid  before  the  Minister-President,  and  which  he  published 
in  the  summer  of  1870, 

Benedetti's  letter  of  August  2.3  begins  as  follows  : 
"  I  have  received  your  letter,  and  I  conform  myself  to  the  best 
of  my  abilities  to  the  views  it  expresses.     I  send  you  my  draft  in 
this  inclosiire.    I  need  not  tell  you  why  Landau  and  Saarbriicken 


170        Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War. 

are  not  mentioned  in  it,  for  I  am  convinced  that  if  we  ventured 
to  include  them  we  should  encounter  insuperable  difficulties,  so 
that  I  have  confined  myself  to  Luxemburg  and  Belgium." 

In  another  passage  he  says  : 

"As*  a  matter  of  course  it  is  a  first  draft  that  I  am  sending 
you,  and  we  shall  modify  it  if  necessary." 

The  letter  goes  on  in  another  place  ; 

"  You  will  notice  that  instead  of  drafting  two  agreements  I 
have  only  sent  you  one.  When  I  came  to  write  it  out  I  was 
compelled  to  recognise  that  it  would  have  beeia  difficult  to  ex- 
press stipulations  which  could  be  published  about  Luxemburg. 
I  might  perhaps  make  the  proposal  to  give  Article  IV.,  the  one 
referring  to  Belgium,  the  form  and  character  of  an  article  in  a 
Secret  Appendix,  by  putting  it  at  the  end.  Do  you  not  think, 
however,  that  Article  V.  ought  to  be  as  little  known  as  the 
contracting  parties  to  it  V 

A  draft  of  the  answer  to  this  letter  of  Count  Benedetti's  lies 
in  the  Foreign  Office,  also  written  on  official  paper.  It  is 
obvious  from  it  that  Benedetti's  draft  was  approved  in  Paris, 
but  that  it  was  thought  necessary  to  take  a  little  longer  time 
to  turn  the  matter  over.  It  discusses  the  case  of  the  King  of 
the  Netherlands  requiring  some  compensation  for  Luxemburg 
from  the  territory  of  Prussia.  The  pecuniary  sacrifices  which 
the  treaty  may  require  are  weighed.  The  view  is  put  forward 
that  the  right  of  occupying  the  Federal  fortresses  according  to 
former  Federal  Constitution  was  extinguished,  and  that  their 
maintenance  in  Southern  Germany  Avas  no  longer  reconcileable 
with  the  independence  of  the  states  there.  They  give  up 
Landau  and  Saar-Louis,  but  they  point  out  that  it  would  be  "  an 
act  of  courtesy"  if  Prussia  were,  by  razing  the  works  in  these 
two  fortresses,  to  take  away  their  aggressive  character.  It  is 
pointed  out  at  the  same  time  that  people  in  Paris  regard  the 
TJnification  of  Germany  as  an  inevitable  eventuality  which 
must  come  to  pass  pretty  soon.  Article  IV.  must  not,  how- 
■ever,  be  made  absolutely  dependent  on  Ai'ticle  III.  It  was 
obvious  that  the  extension  of  the  Supremacy  of  Prussia  beyond 
the  Maine  would  be  to  France  a  natural,  almost  a  compelling 
reason  for  making  herself  mistress  of  Belgium.  But  other  op- 
portunities might  arise — the  exclusive  right  to  judge  of  theni 
must  be  claimed  for  her — perfectly  clear  and  accurate  expres- 
sions in  the  draft  would  preserve  for  France  a  liberty  in  this 
respect  which  might  be  very  valuable. 


Prussia  in  search  of  Allies.  171 

It  is  repeatedly  stated,  clearly  and  precisely,  that  the  acqui- 
sition of  LvLxemburg  is  the  immediate,  and  that  of  Belgium  the 
ultimate  object  of  the  agreement  to  be  made  with  Prussia,  but 
that  this  and  the  Offensive  and  Defensive  alliance  are  both  to 
be  kept  secret.     The  paper  goes  on  to  say  : 

"  This  combination  puts  everything  right ;  it  relieves  the 
strain  of  public  feeling  in  France  by  giving  it  an  immediate- 
satisfaction,  and  by  directing  the  public  mind  to  Belgium,  as 
this  action  naturally  does.  It  preserves  the  necessary  secrecy, 
both  in  respect  to  the  project  of  aUiance  and  the  proposed 
annexations.  Should  they  be  of  opinion  that  even  the  giving 
up  of  Luxemburg  ought  to  remain  a  secret  till  the  moment 
•ffhen  we  lay  our  hands  on  Belgium,  you  must  combat  this  view 
by  observations  in  detail.  To  put  off  the  exchange  of  territory 
for  a  longer  or  shorter  period  of  indefiniteness  might  involve  a 
momentous  acceleration  of  the  Belgian  question." 

At  the  end  of  the  letter  Benedetti  is  empowered,  if  he 
thinks  it  neces-sary,  to  go  to  Karlsbad  for  some  time.  Count 
Benedetti  answered  this  letter  on  August  29th.  It  is  at  this 
time  that  he  first  expresses  his  doubt  whether  they  could  reckon 
on  Prussia's  sincerity  in  the  transaction.  He  remarks  that 
Count  Bismarck  had  signified  to  him  some  doubt  whether  the 
Emperor  Napoleon  might  not  make  use  of  such  negotiations  to 
produce  ill-feeling  against  Germany  in  England.  He  remarks 
upon  that,  "  What  sort  of  reliance  can  we  have  on  our  side  on 
people  accessible  to  such  calculations  ?  "  He  mentions  General 
Manteuffel's  mission  to  St.  Petersburg,  and  is  afraid  that 
•'  Prussia  may  have  been  looking  out  elsewhere  for  strengthen- 
ing alliances,  which  may  enable  her  not  to  face  the  necessity  of 
reckoning  with  France.  Prussia  requires — as  M.  de  Bismarck 
asserts  that  the  King  once  said — ^an  alliance  with  one  of  the  great 
Powers.  If  they  show  themselves  disinclined  to  France,  it  is 
because  they  have  another  already  quite  or  very  nearly  ready." 
In  order  to  wait  for  light  on  the  subject,  Benedetti,  thinks  thQ 
moment  opportune  for  him  to  go  off  for  a  fortnight  to  Karlsbad, 
where  he  will  hold  himself  in  readiness  to  return  to  Berlin  on 
the  receipt  of  any  telegram  whatever  from  Count  Bismarck. 
During  his  ab.sence,  however,  the  Minister  President  also  left 
and  did  not  return  till  December. 

The  secret  negotiations  accordingly  remained  in  abeyance  for 
sevei-al  months.  They  were  re-opened  later,  on  various  occa- 
sions, always  by  Benedetti.     In  his  book  he  says  (p.  184),  that 


172        Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War. 

it  is  a  mistake  for  M.  de  Bismarck  to  displace  the  negotiations 

about  Belgium  in  the  year  1866,  and  to  put  them  in  1867  ;  but 

the  fact  is  merely  this,  that  the  French  ambassador   re-opened 

the  negotiations  interrupted   in   the   previous   year,    and   the 

representatives  of  Prussia  took  part  in  them  only  with  the  view 

to  put  off  an  attack  from  France,  confining  them,  however,  to 

Belgium  alone  after  the  failure  of  his  attempt  on  Luxemburg. 

The  attitude  of  France  at  the  time  of  the   dispute   about   the 

Belgian  railways,  taken  along  with  what  has  been  said,  makes  it 

seem  not  incredible  that  even  at  that  time   she  had  not  given 

up  the  hope  of  procuring  the  consent  of  North  Germany  to  her 

favorite  project. 

*         *         *         *         *■*         *         *         * 

We  return  to  1870,  and  to  extracts  from  the  chronicle  of  our 
life  in  Versailles  : 

Sunday,  Xoveniber  6. — We  learn  in  the  morning  that  one  of 
the  air-balloons  which  recently  escaped,  after  crossing  the  town, 
has  fallen  into  the  hands  of  our  hussars  at  Chartres.  The 
soldiers  had  hit  it,  so  that  it  came  down.  The  two  aeronauts  who 
were  sitting  in  the  car  were  made  prisoners,  and  the  letters  and 
papers,  which  were  confiscated,  are  to  be  sent  on  here  for  our 
perusal. 

Motiday,  November  7. — The  Chief  orders  me  this  morning  to 
telegraph  to  London :  "  During  five  days  of  negotiation  with 
Thiers,  he  has  been  offered  an  armistice  on  the  basis  of  the 
militaiy  status  quo  for  any  length  of  time  up  to  twenty-eight 
days,  so  as  to  hold  the  elections,  which  were  to  be  allowed  even 
in  the  occupied  portions  of  France.  Ultimately,  he  was  offered 
permission  and  facilities  for  holding  the  elections  even  without 
an  armistice.  But  after  further  consultation  with  the  Parisian 
authorities,  held  in  the  outpost  lines,  he  was  not  empowered  to 
accept  either.  He  insisted  above  all  things  that  Paris  should 
be  re-provisioned,  but  he  was  unable  to  offer  any  military  equiva- 
lent. This  demand  could  not  be  granted  by  the  Germans  for 
military  reasons,  and  yesterday  M.  Thiers  had  orders  from  Paris 
to  break  off  the  negotiations." 

From  other  sources  we  learned  the  following  additional  par- 
ticulars of  the  course  of  these  events,  and  the  present  situation. 
The  order  reached  Thiers  in  a  short  dry  letter  from  Favre,  which 
sent  him  back  to  Tours,  whither  he  went  to-day.  He  was  very 
much  depressed  at  the  foolish  stiff-neckedness  of  the  Minister 
in  Paris  with  which  he  himself  could  not  sympathise,  and  wliich 


The  Capture  of  the  Balloons.  173 

seemed  not  to  animate  several  of  the  members  of  the  Provisional 
Government.  Favre  and  Picard,  especially  the  latter,  are  eager 
for  peace,  but  are  too  weak  compared  with  the  others  to  carry 
their  object.  Gambetta  and  Trochu  want  no  elections,  as  in  all 
probability  these  would  make  an  end  of  their  domination.  This 
domination  is  itself,  however,  on  a  very  weak  footing.  It  may 
be  overthrown  in  Paris  any  day,  and  the  provinces  are  also 
unsteady  in  their  support.  In  the  South,  Marseilles,  Toulouse, 
and  a  number  of  Departments  no  longer  recognise  the  Govern- 
ment of  National  Defence,  which  is  not  Radical  enough  for 
them,  that  is  to  say,  that  it  is  not  Communist.  There  and 
everywhere  else,  among  all  who  belong  to  tho  propertied  classes, 
the  prospects  of  the  Imperialist  party  are  steadily  improving. 

At  table,  where  we  had  Major  von  Alten,  Adjutant-Major 
to  the  King,  Count  BUI,  and  Lieutenant  Philip  von  Bismarck, 
the  Minister's  nephew,  we  talked  of  the  delay  of  the  bombard- 
ment, and  the  Chancellor  declared  the  rumor  now  going  the 
round  of  the  newspapers,  that  he  did  not  want  it,  while  the 
military  authorities  were  urging  it  on,  to  be  thoroughly  "  un- 
reasonable and  inexplicable."  "It  is  just  the  other  way,"  he 
said.  "  Nobody  urges  and  presses  it  more  than  I  do,  and  it  is 
the  military  people  who  do  not  want  to  begin.  A  great  part  of 
my  correspondence  is  spent  on  the  effort  to  remove  the  scruples 
and  objections  of  the  military  authorities." 

The  conversation  seemed  to  make  it  clear  that  the  artillery 
still  wanted  more  preparation,  and  that  they  thought  they  had 
not  enough  ammunition.  Some  one  spoke  of  ninety  wagon 
loads  every  day.  At  Strassburg,  too,  they  had  insisted  on  more 
than  was  really  needed,  and  in  the  end,  though  they  used  up  an 
enormous  quantity  of  powder  and  shot,  two-thirds  of  the  accumu- 
lated ammunition  was  left  over.  Alten  said  that  if  we  had 
occupied  the  forts  we  should  have  been  exposed  to  the  fire  of 
the  enceinte,  and  would  have  had  to  begin  everything  over  again. 
"  It  may  be  so,"  said  the  Minister,  "  but  in  that  case  it  ought 
to  have  been  well  known  to  them  beforehand,  for  there  is  no 
Fortification  with  which  we  have  been  so  thoroughly  well 
acquainted  from  the  time  the  war  began  as  with  Paris." 

Some  one  said  that  two  air-balloons  had  been  caught,  in  the 
one  of  which  two  prisoners  had  been  taken,  and  in  the  other 
three.  The  Chief  said  that  there  was  no  doubt  that  they  must 
be  treated  as  spies. 

Alten  said   that  they  would  be  brought  before  a  military 


174        Bismarck  in  the  Franco-Gerraan  War. 

tribunal,  and  the  Chief  replied,  "  Then  certainly  nothing  will 
be  done  with  them."  He  then  spoke  of  Count  Bill's  being  so 
well  in  health,  and  so  strong,  and  that  at  his  years  he  himself 
had  been  slim  and  lean. 

Tuesday,  November  8. — A  telegram  was  sent  off  in  the 
morning  to  order  the  persons  captured  in  the  air-balloons  to  be 
sent  on  to  a  Prussian  fortress,  and  then  brought  before  a  mil- 
itary tribunal,  and  further  stating  that  the  letters  confiscated 
in  the  balloon  car  compromised  diplomatists  and  other  persons 
to  whom  communication  with  outside  Paris  had  been  hitherto 
allowed  out  of  respect  to  their  Position  and  their  sense  of 
honor.  This  communication,  an  article  founded  on  these  facts 
said,  could  no  longer  be  permitted. 

About  half-past  ten,  when  we  were  at  breakfast,  the  Chief 
received  a  visit  from  an  elderly  gentleman  wearing  a  silk  cloak 
and  a  scarlet  cap,  with  a  scarf  of  the  same  color.  He  was 
Archbishop  Ledochowski  from  Posen,  and  we  should  have 
liked  to  know  whether  his  business  was  about  the  Pope's  offer 
to  intervene  in  our  interests  with  the  French  Government. 
Probably  they  hope  in  that  way  to  procure  an  intervention  of 
the  German  Government  in  the  interests  of  the  Pope.  The 
Archbishop  stayed  till  about  three  o'clock,  and  after  he  left  the 
Chief  went  off  to  the  King.  He  dined  afterwards  with  the 
Crown  Prince,  where  the  Grand  Duke  of  Baden,  who  had  just 
arrived,  was  also  dining. 

Wednesday,  November  9. — A  broken  and  cloudy  day.  I 
wrote  an  article.  Then  we  read,  marked,  and  made  extracts 
from  the  Times,  as  usual.  It  was  pleasant  to  come  across 
passages  in  the  Kolnische  like :  "  The  tooth  of  Time  has 
peopled  the  walls  with  moss."  A  picturesque  writer  wrote  : 
"  The  great  ditch  at  Sedan,  whose  grey  lips  shut  themselves 
down  in  thunder  on  the  greatness  of  France."  Well  roared, 
lion/ 

In  the  evening  L.  tells  us  that  Chateaudun  has  again  been 
evacuated  by  our  troops,  and  occupied  by  the  vanguard  of  the 
French ;  and  he  believes  he  knows  that  there  was  a  sortie  of 
the  Parisians  to-day  against  the  part  of  our  line  held  by  the 
Bavarians. 

At  tea  the  rumor  was  mentioned  that  the  influence  of  ladies 
had  contributed  to  put  off  the  bombardment.  After  half-past 
ten  the  Chief  came  to  us  out  of  the  salon,  where  he  had  been 
talking  with  the  Bavarian  general,  von  Kothmer,  and  had,  it 


Where  xoill  the  Pope  retire  to?  l7o 

appears,  been  discussing  military  questions  in  connection  wiih 
the  larger  Unity  of  Germany,  which  is  now  in  progress.  He 
stayed  perhaps  an  hour  with  us.  When  he  sat  down  he  called 
for  a  glass  of  beer.  Then  he  sighed,  and  said,  "  I  wished  once 
more  to-day,  as  I  have  often  wished  before,  that  I  could  say  for 
even  five  minutes*,  this  is  to  be  or  it  is  not  to  be.  One  has  to 
bother  about  whys  and  wherefores,  to  convince  people,  to  entreat 
them  even  about  the  simplest  matters — what  a  worry  is  this 
eternal  talking  and  begging  for  things  !" 

Hatzfeld  asked,  "Has  your  Excellency  noticed  that  the 
Italians  have  broken  into  the  Quirinal  1"  "  Yes,"  said  the 
Chief,  "  and  I  am  curious  to  see  what  the  Pope  will  do.  Will 
he  leave  the  country,  and  where  will  he  go  ?  He  has  already 
asked  us  to  ascertain  for  him  from  Italy  whether  she  would 
allow  him  to  leave  the  country,  and  whether  it  might  be  done 
in  a  reasonably  dignified  way.  We  did  so,  and  they  replied 
that  they  would  be  careful  throughout  to  respect  his  position, 
and  would  act  in  the  same  way  if  he  determined  to  leave 
Itoly." 

"  They  would  be  very  unwilling  to  let  him  go,"  said  Hatz- 
feld. "  It  is  for  their  iiiterest  that  he  should  remain  in  Rome." 
The  Chief  said,  "  Ceitainly ;  but  perhaps  he  may  have  to  go, 
notwithstanding.  Then  where  "svill  he  go  to  ]  Not  to  France, 
for  Garibaldi  is  there.  He  does  not  wish  to  go  to  Austria. 
Tliere  is  Spain,  of  course.  I  ofiered  him  to  Bavaria.  He 
thought  for  a  moment,  and  then  said,  '  There  is  nothing  left  for 
him  but  Belgium,  or — North  Gei-many.'  In  fact,  we  have 
often  been  asked  whether  we  could  secure  him  an  asylum.  I 
have  no  objection  to  the  Cologne  or  Fulda.  It  would  be  an  ex- 
traordinary turn,  but  it  would  not  be  an  unlikely  one,  and  for 
us  it  Avould  be  a  great  advantage  that  we  should  appear  to  the 
Catholics  as  we  really  are,  the  only  power  in  the  present  day 
willing  and  able  to  offer  security  to  the  supreme  prince  of  their- 
church.  Tlien  Stofilet  and  Charette  and  their  Zouaves  might- 
at  once  go  home.  Every  pretext  for  the  opposition  of  the- 
Ultramontanes  would  disappear ;  and  in  Belgium  and  Bavaria,. 
too,  Malinkrott  would  have  to  support  the  Government." 

"  People  with  lively  imaginations,  especially  women,  whett 
they  are  in  Rome,  Avith  the  incense  and  tUe  splendor  of  Catho- 
licism about  them,  and  the  PQpe  on  his  Throne  dispensing 
blessings,  feel  an  inclination  to  become  Catholics.  In  Germany, 
where  tiiey  v.ould  have  the  Pope  before  their  eyes  as  an  old 


176        Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War. 

man  in  want  of  help,  a  good  kind  gentleman,  one  of  the  bishops 
eating  and  drinking  Uke  the  others,  taking  his  pinch,  perhaps 
even  smoking  his  cigar,  there  would  be  no  such  great  danger. 
And,  finally,  even  if  some  people  in  Germany  did  go  back  to 
Catholicism  there  would  not  be  much  to  grieve  about,  as  long 
as  they  continued  good  Christians.  People's  confessions  don't 
make  the  difference,  but  their  beliefs.  One  ought  to  be  toler- 
ant." He  developed  these  views  further  in  the  most  interest- 
ing way,  but  I  cannot  reproduce  it  here. 

Then  we  turned  to  other  matters.  Hatzfeld  said  that  his 
Highness  of  Coburg  had  fallen  off  his  horse.  "  Fortunately 
without  hurting  himself,"  added  Abeken,  who  had  just  hurried 
in,  with  a  happy  look  on  his  face.  The  Chief  was  tempted 
to  tell  us  about  similar  misfortunes  which  had  befallen 
himself. 

"  I  believe,"  he  remarked,  "  that  if  I  say  that  I  have  fallen 
off  my  horse  fifty  times  I  am  not  up  to  the  mark.  To  fall  off 
yovir  horse  is  nothing,  but  it  is  bad  to  fall  with  him,  and  to  have 
him  lying  on  the  top  of  you.  The  last  time  I  had  that  was  in 
Varzin,  when  I  broke  three  of  my  ribs.  I  thought  then 
that  it  was  all  over.  There  was  not  so  much  danger  as  ap- 
peared, but  it  was  frightfully  painful." 

"Once  before,  I  had  a  remarkable  tumble,  which  proves 
how  people's  power  of  thinking  depends  on  the  matter  of  the 
brain.  I  was  on  the  road  home  with  my  brother,  and  we  were 
riding  as  fast  as  the  horees  would  go.  Suddenly  my  brother, 
who  was  a  little  in  front,  heard  a  frightful  crack.  It  was  my 
head,  which  had  knocked  on  the  road." 

"  My  horse  had  shied  at  the  lantern  of  a  wagon  which  was 
coming  up,  and  reared  backwards,  and  fallen  with  me,  on  its 
own  head.  I  lost  consciousness,  and  when  I  came  out  of  this 
state  it  was  only  a  half  recovery,  that  is  to  say,  a  part  of  my 
thinking  machinery  was  quite  clear  and  sound,  but  the  other 
Iialf  was  not  there.  I  felt  over  my  horse,  and  found  that  the 
saddle  was  broken.  Then  I  called  my  groom,  ordered  him  to 
give  me  his  horse,  and  rode  home.  When  the  dogs  there  bark- 
ed at  me — a  friendly  greeting — I  took  them  for  strange  dogs, 
and  was  vexed  with  them,  and  scolded  them.  Then  I  said  that 
the  groom  had  fallen  with  the  horse,  and  that  he  must  be 
brought  back  on  a  litter.  I  was  very  angry  when,  on  a  sign 
from  my  brother,  they  did  not  carry  out  my  orders.  Did  they 
mean  to  leave  the  poor  man  lying  in  the  road?   I  did  not  know 


Suspended  Brain  Power.  177 

that  I  "was  myself,  and  that  I  had  got  home,  or  rather  I  was 
myself  and  the  groom  at  the  same  time.  I  then  asked  for  some- 
thing to  eat,  and  went  to  bed.  In  the  morning,  after  I  had 
slept  it  off,  I  was  all  right.  It  was  a  singular  case ;  I  had  look- 
ed at  the  saddle,  had  got  myself  another  horse,  and  had  done 
other  things  like  that,  everything,  in  fact,  that  was  practical 
and  necessary.  In  all  this  the  fall  had  produced  no  confusion 
in  my  ideas.  It  is  a  curious  example  to  show  what  different 
powers  of  the  mind  the  brain  accommodates.  Only  one  of  mine 
was  l)enumbed  for  any  length  of  time  by  the  fall." 

"I  remember  another  tvmble.  I  was  riding  fast  through 
young  brushwood  in  a  great  forest,  a  good  bit  away  from  home. 
I  wanted  to  get  on  by  a  near  cut  right  through  the  wood,  but  I 
fell,  with  my  horse,  and  lost  consciousness.  I  must  have  lain 
there  three  hours  or  so,  insensible,  for  it  was  getting  dark  when 
I  woke  up.  The  horse  was  standing  close  by.  The  locality, 
as  I  told  you,  was  quite  away  from  our  pix)perty,  and  unfami- 
liar. I  had  not  yet  properly  recovered  my  faculties ;  but  I  did 
what  was  necessary  here,  too.  I  loosened  the  martingale,  which 
was  in  two  bits,  put  it  in  my  pocket,  and  rode  off  by  a  way 
which,  as  I  then  understood,  was  the  nearest — it  crossed  a  river 
by  a  pretty  long  bridge — to  a  neighboring  farm,  where  the 
tenant's  wife  ran  away  when  she  saw  a  big  man  ride  up  with 
his  face  covered  with  blood.  But  the  husband  came  out  and 
washed  the  blood  off.  I  told  him  who  I  was,  and  that  I  had 
ten  or  twelve  miles  to  ride  to  get  home,  that  I  was  not  very 
able  to  do  it,  and  that  I  should  like  him  to  drive  me  over  which 
he  did.  I  must  have  stumbled  forward  fifteen  paces  when  I 
came  to  the  ground  and  tumbled  over  the  root  of  a  tree.  When 
the  doctor  examined  my  hurts,  he  said  it  was  conti-ary  to  all 
professional  rules  that  I  had  not  broken  my  neck. " 

Thursday,  November  10. — Winter  is  upon  us,  and  it  has  Ijeen 
snowing,  with  a  rather  low  temperature,  for  several  hours  in 
succession.  In  the  morning  the  Chief  tells  me  to  telegraph 
that  there  have  already  been  calamitous  results  for  the  poor, 
and  that  more  are  to  be  anticipated  from  the  Provisional  Gov- 
ernment's deliberate  misappropriation  of  the  funds  of  Savings 
Banks  and  of  corporations  for  the  purposes  of  the  war.  After- 
wards I  am  to  study  for  my"  own  information  the  documents 
relating  to  the  unsuccessful  peace  negotiations. 

Thiers  lias  put  on  record  how  he  and  the  Ministers  of 
France   whom   he   represented   understood   the  basis  of   the 


X78        Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War. 

armistice  which  was  to  have  been  made.  Their  line  was  as 
follows  :  The  object  of  the  agreement  was  to  be  to  put  an  end 
as  soon  as  possible  to  the  eflusion  of  blood  and  to  summon  a 
National  Assembly,  which,  as  expressing  its  wishes,  would  re- 
present France  before  the  Powers  of  Europe,  and  which  might 
sooner  or  later  conclude  a  treaty  of  peace  with  Prussia  and  her 
allies.  The  armistice  would  have  to  last  twenty-eight  days  at 
least,  twelve  of  which  would  be  needed  for  summoning  the 
electors,  one  for  the  voting  on  the  candidates,  five  for  the 
assembling  of  those  elected  in  some  place  to  be  determined  on, 
and  ten  for  the  validation  of  the  elections  and  the  constitution 
of  a  Bureau.  The  place  of  meeting  might  for  the  present  be 
Tours.  Free  and  undisturbed  elections  must  be  permitted,  even 
in  the  districts  of  France  at  present  occupied  by  the  German 
armies.  Military  operations  must  stop  on  both  sides,  but  both 
sides  were  to  be  permitted  to  bring  up  recruits,  to  undertake 
defensive  works,  and  to  construct  camps.  The  armies  were  to 
be  allowed  to  supply  themselves  by  any  means  at  their  disposal, 
but  requisitions  must  cease,  "  being  a  war  measure  which  must 
necessarily  stop  with  hostilities."  The  fortified  places  were  to 
have  liberty  to  re-provision  themselves  for  the  period  of  the 
armistice,  in  proportion  to  the  numbers  of  the  population  and 
garrison  shut  in.  With  this  object,  Paris  was  to  be  supplied, 
by  four  specified  railways,  with  cattle  and  various  other  neces- 
saries as  follows :  54,000  oxen,  80,000  sheep,  8,000  swine, 
5,000  calves,  and  the  necessary  fodder  for  these  animals,  con- 
sisting of  400,000  tons  of  hay  and  straw ;  5,000  tons  of  salted 
beef,  10,000  tons  of  meal,  1,500  tons  of  dried  vegetables,  100,- 
000  tons  of  coals,  640,000  cubic  yards  of  wood  for  fuel :  the 
population  of  Paris  being  reckoned  for  the  purposes  of  this 
calculation  at  400,000  of  a  garrison,  and  2,700,000  to  2,800,- 
000  within  the  lines  of  investment. 

These  demands  of  the  French  were  not  to  be  listened  to.  If 
the  Germans  had  conceded  them,  they  would  have  given  away 
the  larger  and  better  half  of  the  advantages  they  had  secured 
by  great  efforts  and  sacrifices  during  the  seven  weeks  just  past. 
In  other  words,  they  would  have  put  themselves  back  in  essen- 
tially the  ^me  position  as  on  September  19th,  the  day  when 
our  troops  completed  the  investment.  We  were  to  let  Paris 
be  supplied  with  provisions,  though  she  was  then  suftering  from 
want,  and  would  soon  be  driven  of  necessity,  either  to  endure 
a  famine  or  to  surrender.     We  were  to  give  up  our  operations. 


Why  tJie  Negotiations  Failed,  179 

at  the  very  time  when  Prince  Frederick  Charles's  army  had  just, 
been  set  free,  by  the  fall  of  Metz,  for  further  operations, 
which  could  be  prosecuted  with  stUl  greater  effect.  We  were 
to  sit  still  and  permit  the  levies  and  the  recruiting,  by  which 
the  French  Republic  hoped  to  create  a  new  army  for  itself  in 
the  field,  to  go  quietly  on  while  our  own  army  was  in  no  want 
of  recruits.  While  we  were  asked  to  allow  Paris  and  the  rest 
of  the  French  fortresses  to  re-provision  themselves,  we  were  to 
leave  our  army  to  supply  itself  without  the  requisitions  per- 
mitted in  an  enemy's  covintry.  All  these  demands  we  were  to 
concede,  without  our  opponents  offering  us  a  single  military  or 
political  equivalent — such,  for  instance,  as  the  evacuation  of 
one  of  several  of  the  forts  round  Paris,  as  the  price  of  allow- 
ing it  to  be  re-provisioned  ;  and  without  their  putting  forward 
any  assured  prospect  of  peace.  To  procure  through  the 
armistice  a  general  election  of  a  Constituent  Assembly  to  re- 
store order  and  establish  a  government  such  as  all  might  recog- 
nize, the  object  which  Thiers'  memorial  puts  forward  as  the  first 
thing  to  be  got  by  it,  would  certainly  be  far  more  in  the  in- 
terest of  the  French  than  in  ours.  When  we  remember  the 
inflamed  state  of  the  public  mind  in  France,  kept  up  by  the 
continual  stimulating  proclamations  of  the  Provisional  Govern- 
ment, it  is  impossible  to  feel  that  there  was  any  security  for  us. 
If  the  existing  Government  had  really  wished  the  elections, 
they  could  have  obtained  what  they  ^vished  without  the  elabor- 
ate apparatus  of  an  armistice. 

With  such  proposals,  it  was  useless  for  the  Germans  even  to 
begin  to  treat.  Everything  must  be  put  quite  differently  :  and 
the  Chancellor  accordingly  offered  M.  Thiers  an  armistice  on 
the  basis  of  the  military  status  quo,  to  last  for  twenty-five  to 
twenty-eight  days,  and  which  the  French  might  employ  in 
quietly  calling  their  electors  together,  and  in  summoning  the 
resulting  Constituent  A.ssembly.  This  itself  was  a  concession  oa. 
our  side,  all  the  advantages  of  Avhich  were  with  the  French.  If,  as 
Thiers  asserted,  Paris  was  really  supplied  with  provisions  and 
other  necessaries  for  several  months — and  this  was  scarcely 
doubtful  about  the  one  article  of  meal — it  was  not  intelligible 
how  the  Provisional  Government  should  have  allowed  the  ne 
gotiations  for  an  armistice,  which  at  the  worst  prevented  the 
French  from  making  further  sorties,  to  break  down  on  this 
question  of  the  reprovisioning  of  Paris.  France  would  have 
had  the  immense  advantage  of  confining  the  otherwise  inevit- 


180        Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War. 

able  occupation  of  French  territory,  which  the  army  just  set 
free  after  the  siege  of  Metz  was  preparing  to  accomplish,  within 
a  line  of  demarcation.  Thiers,  however,  rejected  this  very  liberal 
offer,  and  insisted  on  regarding  the  re-provisioning  of  Paris  as 
the  condition  sine  qud  fion  of  an  agreement.  He  was  not  even 
ultimately  authorized  to  offer  any  military  equivalent  for  it, 
such  as  the  evacuation  of  one  of  the  forts  of  Paris. 

As  we  were  going  in  to  dinner,  the  Chief  told  us  that  theMin- 
ister  of  war  was  seriously  ill.  He  was  feeling  very  weak  and 
had  not  been  able  to  get  up  for  fourteen  days  past.  Afterwards 
he  joked  about  the  washing  water  in  the  house — "  The  occupants 
of  the  water  pipes  here  seem  to  have  their  seasons  like  other 
people.  First  come  the  centipedes,  which  I  don't  like  at  all, 
with  their  hundred  feet  going  all  together ;  then  there  are  the 
cockroaches,  which  I  can't  bear  to  touch,  though  they  are 
harmless  creatures  enough — I  would  rather  handle  a  serpent ; 
then  we  have  the  leeches.  I  found  a  quiet  little  one  to-day, 
which  had  rolled  itself  up  like  a  button.  I  tried  to  develop 
him,  but  he  would  not  move,  and  remained  a  mere  button.  At 
last  I  poured  spring  water  over  his  back,  when  he  pulled  him- 
self out  as  long  and  as  fine  as  a  needle  and  got  away."  We 
then  talked  of  all  sorts  of  simple  dainties,  none  the  less  excel- 
lent on  that  account :  herring,  fresh  and  salt,  new  potatoes, 
spring  butter,  &c.  The  Minister  said  to  Delbriick,  who  paid 
his  tribute  also  to  these  good  things,  "The  sturgeon  is  a  fish 
which  is  not  appreciated,  though  it  is  thought  much  of  in 
Russia,  and  is  getting  more  in  favor  with  us.  In  the  Elbe,  for 
instance,  about  Magdeburg,  it  is  constantly  caught,  but  it  is 
eaten  only  by  fishermen  and  poor  people."  He  then  explained 
his  own  preferences,  and  came  to  talk  of  caviare,  the  different 
kinds  of  which  he  characterised  with  the  feeling  of  an  amateur. 
After  a  while  he  said  :  "How  many  points  of  resemblance  there 
are  between  these  Gauls  and  the  Slavs!  It  struck  me  to-day 
again  very  forcibly,  after  the  snow.  The  same  broad  streets, 
the  same  closely-packed  houses,  the  same  frequently  flat  roofs, 
as  in  Russia.  Nothing  but  the  green-onion  looking  church 
spires  is  wanting.  And  there  are  other  points.  The  verst  and  the 
kilometre,  and  the  ardschine  and  the  metre  are  the  same.  There 
is  the  same  tendency  to  centralisation,  the  same  absolute  iden- 
tity in  everybody's  views,  the  same  Communistic  strain  in  the 
National  character."  He  then  spoke  of  the  wonderful  world  of 
to-day,  which  turned  everything  that  used  to  stand  on  its  feet 


Cups  and  Puzzle-bottlea.  181 

upside  down,  and  showed  the  most  extraordinary  displacement 
of  relations."  "  When  one  thinks  of  it,"  he  said,  "  that  the 
Pope  may  perhaps  end  his  days  in  a  little  Protestant  town  in 
Germany"  ("Bradenburg  on  the  Havel,"  interposed  Bohlen) 
"  that  the  Ileichstag  may  be  in  Paris,  the  Corps  Legislatif  in 
Cassel,  that  in  spite  of  Mentana  Garibaldi  is  a  French  general, 
that  Papal  Zouaves  are  fighting  side  by  side  with  him  ;"  and  he 
enlarged  a  while  longer  on  the  same  subject. 

"  To-day  I  had  a  letter  from  Metternich,"  he  said  suddenly. 
"  He  wants  me  to  let  Hoyos  go  in  to  bring  out  the  Austrians  in 
Paris.  I  told  him  that  since  October  25th  they  have  been 
allowed  to  come  out,  but  that  we  now  let  nobody  whomsoever 
go  in — not  even  a  diplomatist.  Nor  do  we  receive  any  in 
Versailles,  only  I  would  make  an  exception  in  his  case.  He 
will  then  probably  bring  up  once  more  the  Austrian  claims  on 
the  Confederation  property  in  the  German  fortresses." 

We  spoke  about  doctors  and  the  way  in  which  Js^ature  occas- 
sionally  puts  herself  to  rights ;  and  the  Chief  said  that  once  when 
he  had  been  on  a  hunting  party  for  two  days,  with  the  Duke 
of  (I  could  not  catch  the  name),  he  had  been  "  all  wrong  there 
in  his  inner  man."  "  Even  the  two  days'  hunting  and  the  fresh 
air  did  nothing  for  me.  I  went  the  day  after  to  the  cuirassiers 
at  Brandenburg,  who  had  been  getting  a  new  cup"  (I  think  he 
added  that  they  were  celebrating  a  jubilee).  "I  was  to  drink 
out  of  it  first  and  handsel  it,  and  then  it  was  to  go  round.  It 
might  hold  a  bottle.  I  held  my  breath,  drank  it  to  the  last 
drop,  and  set  it  down  empty.  I  astonished  them  greatly,  for 
they  don't  expect  much  from  men  of  the  pen.  But  it  was  the 
Gottingen  way.  The  remarkable  thing,  though  perhaps  there 
was  little  in  it,  Avas  that  I  was  never  so  right  inside  as  in  the 
four  weeks  after  that.  I  tried  to  cure  myself  in  the  same  way 
on  other  occasions,  but  I  had  never  again  so  delightful  a  success."" 
•'  I  rememljer  too,  once  when  we  were  \\-ith  the  Letzlingen  hunt, 
under  Frederick  William  IV.,  one  of  these  puzzle  bottles,  of  the 
time  of  Frederick  William  I.,  was  emptied  at  a  draught.  It 
was  a  staghorn,  so  made  that  the  drinker  could  not  put  the 
mouth  of  the  horn,  which  might  hold  three-quarters  of  a  bottle, 
to  his  lips,  and  yet  he  was  not  allowed  to  spill  a  single  drop.  I 
took  it  up  and  emptied  it,  though  it  was  very  dry  champagne, 
and  not  a  single  drop  went  on  my  white  wasitcoat.  The  com- 
pany stared  when  I  said,  'Another.'  But  the  King  said,  '  No, 
there  must  be  no  more,'  and  the  thing  had  to  remain  so." 


182         Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War. 

"  Formerly,  feats  of  that  sort  were  the  indispensable  passports 
into  the  diplomatic  service.  They  drank  the  weak-headed  ones 
below  the  table,  then  they  asked  them  all  sorts  of  things,  which 
they  wanted  to  know,  and  forced  them  to  make  all  sorts  of  con- 
cessions which  they  had  no  authority  to  make.  They  then  made 
them  sign  their  names,  and  when  the  poor  fellows  got  sober 
they  could  not  imagine  how  their  signatures  got  there." 

The  Minister  then  remarked,  though  I  forget  what  occasioned 
him  to  do  so,  that  all  the  families  in  Pomerania  which  rose  to 
the  rank  of  Count  died  out.  "  The  country  cannot  tolerate  the 
name," "he  added.  "I  know  ten  or  twelve  families  with  whom 
it  has  been  so."  He  mentioned  some,  and  went  on  to  say,  "So 
I  struggled  hard  against  it  at  first.  At  last  I  had  to  submit, 
but  I  am  not  without  my  apprehensions,  even  now. 

When  the  roast  came  on,  the  Chief  asked,  "  Is  it  horse?'  One 
of  us  at  the  table  said,  "No,  it  is  beef."  He  said  that  it  was 
very  "odd  that  people  won't  eat  horseflesh  unless  they  are 
forced  to  do  so,  like  the  people  inside  Paris,  who  will  soon  have 
nothing  else  left.  The  reason,  perhaps,  is  that  the  horse  seems 
to  come  nearer  to  us  than  any  other  animal.  When  he  is 
riding,  the  man  is  almost  one  with  the  horse. 

"  'Ich  hatt'  einen  Kameraden. 
Als  war's  ein  Stiick  von  mir.' 

('I  had  a  comrade,  who  was  like  a  piece  of  myself.)  It  is 
nearest  us  in  intelligence.  It  is  the  same  thing  with  the  dog. 
Dog-flesh  must  taste  well  enough,  but  we  never  eat  it."  One  of 
the  gentlemen  expressed  himself  unfavorably,  and  another  said 
a  word  for  dog-steaks.  The  Chief  went  on  with  his  parable  : 
"The  liker  anything  is  to  us,  the  less  can  we  eat  it.  It  must  be 
very  loathsome  to  have  to  eat  monkeys,  which  have  hands  so 
like  men's."  Somebody  reminded  him  that  the  South  American 
savages  ate  monkeys,  and  then  we  began  to  talk  about  cannibals. 
"Yes,"  he  said,  "but  that  must  have  been  commenced  at  first 
through  hunger,  and  I  believe  I  have  read  that  they  prefer 
women,  who  are,  at  least,  not  of  their  own  sex.  Man  really 
does  not  care  for  the  food  of  many  animals,  savage  brutes,  for 
instance,  like  lions  and  wolves.  To  be  sure  he  likes  bears,  but 
they  live  rather  on  vegetable  than  on  animal  food.  I  can't  eat 
a  bit  of  a  fowl  Avhich  takes  on  fat,  not  even  its  eggs." 

Friday,  November  11. — This  morning,  to  judge  from  the  noise 
of  a  furious  cannonade  by  Ballerjan  (Valerien),  coming  from  the 


Fate  of  a  German  Journalist.  183 

nortli--west,  our  friends  of  the  46th  are  in  particularly  bad  tem- 
per, and  seem  to  be  spitting  back  fire  and  flame.  On  our  side 
we  are  always  the  same  tame  set,  ^\■ithout  a  bark  in  our  voice. 
The  chief  tells  me  to  telegraph  the  capture  of  Neu  Breisach, 
and  wishes  me  to  speak  to  the  English  correspondent,  Robert 
Conningsby,  who  has  asked  him  for  an  audience  as  the  corres- 
pondent of  several  newspapers.  I  was  to  tell  him  that  the  Chan- 
cellor regretted  he  had  no  time  to  spare.  Then  he  handed  me  the 
Brussels  Indiscrete.  "  "  There  is  a  wonderful  biography  of  me 
there,  which  is  extremely  comical.  They  would  find  it  as  true 
to  my  character  as  the  pictures  are  to  the  text  which  they 
illustrate.  Possibly  something  in  it  might  be  made  use  of  for 
our  own  papers  "  (Frederick  the  Great  also  made  lampoons  on 
himself  more  accessible  to  the  public). 

At  breakfast  we  learned  that  Orleans  was  again  evacuated 
by  our  troops,  and  that  the  Bavarians  there  under  von  der 
Tann  were  16,000.  and  the  French  40,000  strong.  "No  flat- 
ter. "  said  Bohlen  ;  '  the  day  after  to-morrow  Prince  Frederick 
Charles  will  be  thef  e,  and  the  Gauls  will  be  cut  to  pieces. " 

The  Chief  is  not  with  us  to-day.  All  day  long  we  have 
changeable  weather.  Sometimes  it  Ls  sleet  or  snow,  then  there 
is  blue  sky  and  the  sun  comes  out.  In  the  evening  L.  brings 
us  the  news  that  Hofi,  the  writer,  who  was  formerly  associated 
T^nith  him  as  editor  of  the  Nouvelliste,  has  poisoned  himself,  and 
is  to  be  buried  to-morrow.  He  had  been  warned  by  the  com- 
mandant of  the  town  to  leave  Versailles  immediately  for  hav- 
ing complained  a  few  weeks  before,  in  a  letter  to  the  National 
Zeitung  fi'om  the  seat  of  war,  that  the  English  correspondents 
were  more  favored  at  headquarters  than  the  Germans — which, 
by  the  way,  was  the  fact,  though  it  was  not  our  fault  in  the 
Rue  de  Provence.  Iloff  was  the  son  of  an  eminent  Baden 
member  of  parliament,  and  brother  of  the  Diisseldorf  painter. 
He  wrote  also  in  the  Hamburger  JVachrichten,  and  in  the 
Augsburger  Allgevieine  Zeitung,  and  since  1864  always  in  a 
patriotic  sense.  The  Grand  Duie  of  Baden,  to  whom  he  had 
appealed,  or  the  people  about  him,  had  said  they  could  do  noth- 
ing, and  the  poor  fellow  felt  himself  threatened  Avith  disgrace, 
and  saw  his  means  of  livelihood  cut  off  as  he  would  lose  his  place 
as  a  correspondent  by  being  sent  away  from  here.  When  I 
told  him  the  story  the  Chief  remarked,  "It  is  a  great  pity,  but 
he  was  a  fool  for  his  pains;  if  he  had  applied  to  me  he  would 
have  been  let  off. " 


184)        Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War. 

Bohlen,  who  seemed  in  a  particularly  communicative  mood 
to-day,  told  us  sevei'al  pleasant  stories  about  the  personages  in 
the  Hotel  dos  Reservoirs,  ending  with  an  anecdote  of  our  Min- 
ister, which  I  may  note,  though  I  imagine  that  the  story-teller 
has  imported  into  it  a  little  of  his  own,  or  I  should  rather  say, 
given  it  his  own  tone.  Be  that  as  it  may,  the  Count  told  us 
that  a  woman  had  come  to  the  Minister  at  Commercy  to  com- 
plain that  her  husband  had  been  put  in  prison  for  having  struck 
a  hussar  in  the  back  with  his  spade.  The  Minister  looked  pleas- 
ant, and  heard  her  story  out,  and — said  my  autliority — "  when 
she  had  done,  he  said  to  her,  in  the  kindliest  tone,  'My  good 
woman,  you  may  take  my  word  for  it,  that  your  husband — and 
he  drew  his  fingers  around  his  throat— will  be  hanged  at  once." 

The  new  Imperialist  journal  Sittiation  may  have  its  faults, 
but  it  has  some  merits.  What  it  said  a  few  days  ago  about 
Garibaldi's  intervention  in  this  war,  for  instance,  is  perfectly 
correct.  "  Gambetta's  presence  in  Tours,"  it  writes,  "  has 
inspired  some  confidence  there.  It  is  hoped  that  he  may  infuse 
a  little  activity  into  the  defence.  In  the  meantime  the  first 
act  of  the  so-called  young  Dictator  has  made  no  particular  im- 
pression. It  is  the  nomination  of  Garibaldi  as  Commander-in- 
Chief  of  the  Francs-Tireurs  in  the  East.  Garibaldi  has  never 
been  regarded  in  France  as  a  sexious  phenomenon.  He  will  be 
looked  upon  as  a  general  of  the  Comic  Opera,  and  people  are 
impatiently  asking  themselves,  '  Have  we  really  fallen  so  low 
that  we  have  to  go  to  this  political  theatre-puppet  for  help  ?  ' 
Under  pretext  of  awakening  enthusiasm  and  putting  vigor 
into  the  nation,  its  self-respect  is  cruelly  wounded.  But  it 
must  be  remembered  that  the  people  who  have  undertaken  to 
govern  us  are  advocates,  fond  of  pompous  discourses,  high- 
sounding  phrases  and  coups  de  thedtre.  The  nomination  of 
Garibaldi  is  one  of  those  stage  effects  which  can  be  tricked 
out  in  effective  language.  In  the  mouth  of  the  Government  of 
the  National  Defence,  it  signifies  the  Union  of  Free  Nations, 
the  Solidarity  of  Eepubliog.  It  is  possible,  however,  that  M. 
Gambetta,  worried  by  Garibaldi's  ways,  and  not  liking  his 
presence  in  Tours,  where  he  might  easily  have  become  a  cause 
of  dissension,  may  have  despatched  him  to  the  East,  merely  to 
get  him  out  of  his  own  road.  We  are  very  doubtful  whether  he 
will  accomplish  anything,  but  these  people,  who  are  never  at  a 
loss  for  an  argument,  say,  '  His  is  a  name  of  glory,'  and  think 
that  that  answers  all  objections." 


Arni'm  Boitzenburg.  185' 

Saturday  November  12. — A  clear  sky  in  the  morning.  The 
Chief  is  complimented  with  an  hour's  early  military  music.  I 
am  summoned  afterwards  to  receive  his  instructions.  I  draw 
reports  on  the  past  history  of  Cluseret,  the  old  soldier  of  the 
Red  Revolution,  who  is  now  to  organise  the  forces  of  resistance 
of  the  Southern  Federation  which  is  about  to  be  created  ;  and  I 
give  him  again  the  numbers  of  the  French  soldiers  who  have 
fallen  into  our  hands  as  prisoners  since  the  capitulation  of  Metz, 
so  that  the  Chief  may  see  them  at  a  glance.  Nearly  14,000 
men  surrendered  at  Schlettstadt,  Fort  Mortier,  Neu  Breisach, 
Le  Bourget,  Montereau,  Verdun,  and  in  several  smaller  affairs, 
and  are  now  on  their  road  to  Germany., 

Wollmann,  who  has  just  arrived,  is  at  breakfast.  At  dinner 
we  have  Dr.  Lauer  with  us.  We  have  smoked  salmon,  Pom- 
eranian goose-breast  —  an  institution  of  Bucher's,  who  has 
had  it  as  a  love-gift  from  Rodbertus — Magdeburg  sauerkraut, 
and  Leipzig  larks — probably  also  presents  from  home.  The 
Chief  is  called  away  when  the  salmon  is  on  the  table.  He  goes 
back  through  the  salon  and  comes  back  through  the  one  dooi 
opening  on  the  hall,  accompanied  by  an  officer  in  Prussian  uni- 
form, wearing  a  big  beard,  into  the  dining-room,  through 
which  they  then  go  into  the  salon.  We  hear  that  the  officer  is 
the  Grand  Duke  of  Baden.  After  about  ten  minutes  the  Min- 
ister comes  back  to  us. 

We  happened  to  speak  of  Amim  Boitzenburg,  the  ex-minis- 
ter. The  Chief  said  that  he  had  been  his  own  predecessor  in 
Aachen.  He  described  him  as  "  amiable  and  talented,  but 
disinclined  for  any  steady  work  or  energetic  action."  "Like 
an  indiarubber  ball,  which  goes  up  and  down,  bounding  and 
rebounding,  always  getting  feebler,  till  it  stops  altogether. 
First  he  had  an  opinion,  then  it  got  weaker  when  he  had  to 
meet  his  own  objections,  then  an  objection  to  his  objections 
occurred  to  him,  till  in  the  end  there  wa.s  nothing  left,  and  the 
whole  thing  came  to  an  end."  Delbriick  said  the  son-in-law 
was  a  well-trained  and  ingenious  man,  but  thought  he  was 
wanting  in  sympathy  and  energy.  "  Yes,"  the  Chief  said  ; 
"  there  is  not  much  of  the  rocket  at  the  back  of  him."  He 
added  :  "  Otherwise  he  has  a  good  head  ;  but  his  reports,  this 
way  to-day,  that  way  to-mori-ow,  often  with  two  essentially 
different  views  on  the  same  day,  —  there  is  no  relying  on 
him." 

From  Arnim's  want  of  ambition  somebody  took  occasion  to 


186         Bismaixk  in  the  Franco-Germwd  War. 

bring  us  round  to  the  subject  of  titles  and  orders,  and  Abeken 
took  eager  part  in  it  as  a  connoisseur  and  amateur  of  these  de- 
licacies, sitting  all  the  time  bent  in  two,  and  with  his  eyes 
drooped,  only  casting  a  sidelong  glance  now  and  then  in  the  di- 
rection of  the  Minister.  The  Chief  said  that  his  first  decoration 
had  been  the  medal  of  the  Humane  Society,  for  taking  a  sei-vant 
out  of  the  water.  "  I  became  an  Excellency  first, "  he  said, 
"in  the  castle  yard  at  Konigsberg  in  1861.  I  was  one  in 
Frankfort  certainly ;  not  a  Prussian,  but  a  Confecleration  Ex- 
cellency. The  German  Princes  had  decided  that  every  ambas- 
sador from  a  Confederated  parliament  must  be  an  Excellency. 
However  I  did  not  concern  myself  much  about  it,  and  I  have 
not  thought  much  of  these  matters  since.  I  was  a  man  of  rank 
without  the  title.  " 

Sunday,  November  15.— The  Minister  stayed  iii  bed  an  un- 
commonly long  time  to-day,  and  he  did  not  go  to  church.  He 
appeared  to  be  nervous  and  in  bad  form,  perhaps  a  consequence 
of  last  night.  Ate  only  his  soup  and  a  little  ragoiit  with  us  be- 
fore going  off  in  his  general's  uniform,  and  with  his  helmet  and 
several  orders  on,  to  dine  with  the  King.  In  the  evening  he 
told  me  to  contradict  the  false  report  in  a  South  German  paper, 
that  Count  Arnim  had  been  on  a  visit  to  headquarters  before 
he  left  for  Rome. 

I  made  a  note  the  day  before  yesterday  of  an  instance  illus- 
trating the  way  in  which  the  French  calumniate  us.  To-day  I 
happened,  in  the  newspapers,  upon  a  collection  of  examples  of 
their  lying  throughout  this  war.  The  compiler  has  sent  the  Po&t 
the  sum  total  of  the  men  whom  the  war  has  cost  us  according 
to  the  French  bulletins.  It  is  impossible  to  believe  one's  eyes 
when  one  sees  what  marvellous  execution  chassepots  and 
mitrailleuses  have  done  among  our  troops.  According  to  these 
reports  we  lost,  up  to  the  end  of  October,  neither  more  nor 
fewer  than  about  a  couple  of  millions  of  men,  and  they  include 
a  crowd  of  distinguished  and  illustrious  names.  Prince  Al- 
brecht,  Prince  Karl,  Prince  Friedrich  Karl,  and  the  Crown 
Prince  are  dead,  carried  off  by  shots  or  illness.  Treskow  has 
been  cut  down  ;  Moltke  is  buried  ;  the  Duke  of  Nassau  died 
the  death  of  a  hero  for  his  country  though  he  has  never  happened 
to  be  in  the  field  ;  the  Chancellor  of  the  Confederation  fell  shot, 
or  cut  down  by  sabres,  trying  to  appease  a  mutiny  among  the 
the  Bavarian  troops ;  the  King,  tortured  by  his  conscience  for 
having  brought  the  scourge  of  war  on  the  "holy  soil"  of  France, 


Govei^nmental  Shipwreck  of  France.  187 

has  become  insane.  And  these  shameless  liars  presume,  with 
no  very  striking  wit,  to  call  L.'s  Moniteur,  Meiiteur. 

Monday,  Xovember  H — The  Chief  is  not  well,  and  not  to  be 
seen  till  dinner-time.  At  tea  Hatzfeld  tells  us  that  the  attitude 
of  Ru.ssia  causes  him  anxiety.  She  seems  to  wish  to  take  the 
opportunity  of  the  present  war  to  annul  the  Peace  of  1856, 
and  serious  consequences  may  follow.  I  wonder  whether  the 
Chief  takes  the  same  view  % 

From  the  numerous  entries  in  the  old  papers  one  might  con- 
clude that  the  French  had  lost  all  political  sense,  and  spoke  only 
from  passion  and  infatuation.  Yet  there  are  exceptions,  pos- 
sibly many,  who  not  yet  having  taken  leave  of  their  five  senses, 
are  still  in  a  condition  to  use  their  reason.  A  letter  which  is  to 
be  published  in  the  Moniteur  one  of  these  days,  expresses  ideas 
which  look  as  if  the  Avriter  might  Ije  one  of  these  exceptions. 
It  is  a  little  rhetorical,  but  the  meaning  is  intelligible  enough. 

"How  are  we  to  get  out  of  the  blind  alley  into  which  France 
has  run  herself  ]  A  great  country  dismembered,  split  to  pieces, 
paralysed  by  the  government  in  possession,  and  even  more  so  by 
disorders  which  are  of  its  own  making ;  a  whole  nation  without 
a  government,  without  a  supreme  authority,  ^vithout  a  recog- 
nised central  power,  without  a  man  who  can  represent  it  or  who 
can  speak  for  it — that  is  our  situation.  Can  it  go  on  forever  ] 
Assuredly  not.  But  how  are  we  to  get  out  of  it  %  That  is  the 
question  every  intelligent  man  is  asking  himself,  a  question  put 
to  us  on  all  sides,  and  to  which  no  answer  seems  to  be  forth- 
coming. But  an  answer  must  be  found,  must  be  found  soon, 
and  must  be  decisive, 

"  When  we  ask  what  authority  is  left  standing  after  this 
terrible  shipwreck,  there  is  only  one  to  which  the  country  can 
cling,  as  its  last  hope — we  mean  the  General  Councils.  They 
are  the  only  authorities  to  which  France  can  rally  in  her  desper- 
ate condition,  because  at  present  they  are  the  only  authorities 
emanating  from  the  nation.  From  their  constitution,  through 
the  experience  and  social  distinction  of  the  men  who  are  mem- 
bers of  them,  and  their  knowledge  of  the  wants,  the  interests 
and  the  feelings  of  the  people  in  each  of  the  departments  which 
they  represent,  and  among  whom  they  live,  these  bodies  are 
alone  in  a  position  to  exercise  an  undisputed  moral  influence  on 
those  from  whom  they  received  their  mandate. 

"But  what  part  can  the  Genei-al  Councils  take  in  our  present 
relations  1     It  appears  to  me  that  their  part  is  prescribed  to 


188        Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War. 

them  by  the  position  of  affairs.  Let  them  meet  in  each  of  our 
departments,  and  associate  with  themselves  the  deputies  chosen 
at  the  last  election.  Let  them  use  all  possible  means  both  in 
the  departments  still  free,  and  in  those  occupied  by  German 
forces,  to  meet  each  other  in  different  localities,  and  to  come  to 
a  common  understanding.  Let  them  issue  a  distinct  and  intel- 
ligible proclamation  appealing  to  the  sober  senses  of  the  masses 
of  the  people.  (And  certainly  it  will  not  be  easy  to  bring  so 
many  bodies  to  a  single  plan  and  a  common  profession  of  faith  ; 
and  it  will,  at  all  events,  take  some  time.)  Let  a  universal 
vote,  an  expression  of  the  national  will  be  asked  for  and  organ- 
ised. The  nation,  whose  sovereignty  is  appealed  to,  has  by 
three  solemn  decisions,  set  aside  one  goverment ;  it  belongs  to 
it  alone  to  say  clearly  what  it  has  done,  and,  if  necessary  to 
choose  another  government.  Who  could  dare  to  dispute  its 
right  1  "Who  could  venture,  without  justification,  to  substitute 
himself  for  the  country  and  to  take  upon  himself  to  decide  on 
the  destinies  of  the  nation  without  its  instructions  1 

"I  know  the  objections  that  will  be  raised.  I  know  well 
enough  what  difficulties  and  dangers  this  magnificent  mani- 
festation of  the  public  will  would  encounter.  But  it  must  be 
made  in  spite  of  them,  for  there  is  no  other  way  out.  It  is  a 
sorrowful  truth,  but  it  must  be  spoken,  for  it  is  the  fact.  I  am 
convinced  that  it  is  just  in  the  departments  now  occupied  by  the 
Germans  that  the  public  will  would  find  its  fullest  and  freest  ex- 
pression. The  reason  is  that  the  Germans  have  as  deep  an 
interest  as  we  have  in  speedily  obtaining  an  enduring  peace, 
and  that  nothing  but  their  presence  will  be  sufficient  to  prevent 
agitators  from  falsifying  through  violence  the  free  expression  of 
the  national  will.  As  for  the  other  departments — those  parts  of 
France  where  every  element  of  disorder  and  anarchy  is  at  present 
active  and  dominant — even  there,  I  believe  that  the  free  expres- 
ion  of  the  national  will,  whatever  it  may  be,  is  still  possible.  Do 
we  not  know  that  the  agitators,  the  terrorists,  the  elements  of 
destruction  and  intimidation  are  everywhere — yes,  everywhere, 
even  in  Paris,  their  headquarters — in  a  contemptible  minority 
(which  however,  is  active  and  audacious,  while  the  reasonable 
people,  the  friends  of  order,  will  venture  nothing,  and  leave  things 
to  take  their  course),  and  that  it  has  always  sufficed  to  throw 
these  people  back  into  their  original  nothingness,  when  those 
who  wish  things  to  go  in  a  well-ordered  way  choose  to  come 
forward  to  the  front  1" 


Preparing  for  an  Emergency.  189 

The  article  concludes  :  "If  the  nation  cannot  comprehend 
this  momentous  necessity,  if  in  its  apathy  and  dejection  it  can 
resign  itself  to  despair,  we  shall  have  to  bow  our  heads,  confess- 
ing, not  that  we  are  beaten,  but  that  we  are  annihilated,  and  the 
only  hope  of  our  salvation  will  be  from  some  impossible  miracle." 

Tuesday,  November  16. — The  Chief  is  still  out  of  sorts. 
Catarrh  of  the  stomach,  some  call  it,  others  say  it  is  a  bilious 
attack.  "The  people  at  Court  have  their  things  ready  packed 
up  to-day,"  Theiss  tells  us,  and  the  news  is  confirmed  at  break- 
fast, with  this  addition,  however,  that  Kanski  may  perhaps 
only  be  putting  his  subordinates  to  the  test,  and  getting  them 
in  training  for  what  may  possibly  be  wanted. 

For  the  time  being  matters  between  this  and  Orleans  are  not 
in  the  state  we  could  wish.  The  Minister  himself,  when  he 
came  down  to  dinner  with  us,  said  that  it  was  possible  we  might 
have  to  retreat,  and  evacuate  Versailles  for '  some  time.  An 
advance  on  us  here  from  Dreux,  in  concert  with  a  great  sortie 
from  Paris,  is  not  out  of  the  qucti  ii^  and  even  a  layman  can 
understand  that  a  successful  attempt  of  this  kind,  the  con- 
sequence of  which  might  be  that  not  merely  the  Court  and  the 
general  stafl,  but  the  most  important  pieces  of  our  siege  artillery 
might  be  in  danger  of  falling  into  the  hands  of  the  enemy, 
offers  the  only  prospect  of  relief  for  Paris,  and  may  consequently 
very  well  be  in  contemplation,  He  then  told  Hatzfeld,  after 
reading  through  a  despatch  from  Paris,  to  say  that  the  Ameri- 
cans mentioned  may  get  out,  but  the  Roumanians,  for  whom  a 
permit  to  pass  through  our  lines  had  been  also  asked,  are  not  to 
get  it — he  had  his  reasons,  he  said. 

We  are  afterwards  told  that  the  pastor  of  Barwalde,  in 
Pomerania,  has  sent  a  magnificent  love-gift  of  six  roast  geese 
in  tinned  boxes,  one  for  the  King,  one  for  the  Crown  Prince, 
one  for  the  Chief,  one  for  Moltke,  and  so  on.  We  are  living 
here  every  day  much  as  if  we  were  in  Canaan.  We  get  pres- 
ents almost  daily  of  smoked  goose-breast,  game,  pasties,  or  no- 
ble sausages,  and  cigars,  fine  Avines  and  brandies.  The  store- 
room is  sometimes  hardly  able  to  hold  the  baskets,  bottles,  and 
casks,  full  of  these  and  other  supplies. 

In  the  evening  I  read  through  several  balloon  letters.  One 
of  them,  dated  November  3rd — which  will  do  for  insertion  ir 
the  Moniteur  and  elsewhere — was  the  expression  of  the  opinion 
of  a  man  of  rank  on  the  present  situation  in  Paris.  I  omit  the 
address  and  the  sisfnature  : — 


190         Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War. 

••  My  dear  Joseph, 

"  I  hope  you  got  my  last  letters  all  right.  In  the  first  of 
them  I  told  you  my  forebodings,  all  of  which  have  since  been 
fulfilled ;  in  the  second,  I  advised  you  of  my  arrival  in  Paris, 
for  which  I  started  when  I  learned  that  it  would  be  attacked  ; 
in  a  third  I  told  you  how  nobody  is  less  free  than  under  the 
Government  of  Freedom  ;  how  impossible  it  is  to  go  out  with- 
out risk  of  being  set  upon  as  a  spy,  and,  lastly,  how  the  com- 
mon people  seem  to  think  they  have  the  right  to  insult  ordinary 
citizens,  under  the  pretence  that  they  are  their  equals.  To-day 
I  will  give  you  my  account  of  myself  and  the  siege,  although 
you  probably  are  as  well  informed  about  the  latter  as  I  am. 

"  My  business  as  a  National  Guard  is  certainly  not  always 
pleasant.  I  have  often  to  be  seven-and-twenty  hours  on  guard 
on  the  walls,  which  involves  the  duty  of  marching  up  and  down 
all  night  backward  and  forward,  on  the  bastions,  shouldering 
my  musket.  When  it  rains  it  is  very  disagreeable,  and  it  is 
always  tedious,  the  more  so,  that  when  I  come  back  to  the 
guard  house,  I  have  to  lie  down  in  straw  full  of  vermin,  and 
have  every  small  shopkeeper,  publichouse  man,  and  servant  in 
the  quarter  as  my  bedfellows.  So  far  from  being  any  good  to 
me,  my  name  and  position  do  me  harm  by  making  them  envious 
and  jealous,  and  they  do  not  try  to  conceal  their  feelings.  If 
there  is  a  nasty  place,  where  our  common  straw  is  unusually 
filthy,  or  where  it  is  always  rained  upon,  it  is  assigned  to  me, 
on  the  pretext  that  no  preferences  must  be  allowed.  But  the 
feeling  that  I  am  doing  my  duty  raises  me  above  all  these 
annoyances.  What  \  like  worst  is  having  to  mount  guard  in 
the  neighborhood  of  the  powder-mills  inside  the  town.  It  seems 
to  me  that  that  is  the  duty  of  the  new  town  police,  who,  by- 
the-way,  do  nothing  at  all,  from  fear  of  disturbing  the  comfor- 
table repose  of  the  inhabitants. 

"I  went  at  six  the  other  morning  in  an  icy  fog  to  practise 
firing  behind  the  polygon  of  Vincennes.  Next  day  I  had  once 
more  to  get  up  at  five  to  go  to  the  Mairie,  where  my  porter  was 
to  be  elected  corporal.  Finally,  on  October  29th,  I  had  to 
mount  guard  for  seven-and-twenty  hours  in  the  Cirque  de  I'lm- 
peratrice,  which  is  now  turned  into  a  cartridge  factory.  I 
thought  I  had  earned  a  little  i*est ;  but  suddenly  the  alarm-drum 
went  through  all  the  streets  on  the  evening  of  the  31st,  and  I 
had  to  put  on  my  uniform  once  more,  and  repair  to  the  Hotel 
de  Ville.     There  we  stood  from  ten  at  ni^ht  till  five  the  next 


A  JJiplomatwt  in  tice  National  Guard.        191 

morning.  I  happened  to  be  placed  right  before  the  famous 
door  which  the  Mobiles  tried  to  break  in,  some  fifteen  steps 
away.  If  they  had  succeeded,  there  would  assuredly  have  been 
a  fight  just  there,  and  I  should  have  been  hit  for  certain  at  the 
first  volley.  Fortunately  some  means  were  found  of  getting  in- 
to the  building  by  some  underground  passage,  and  we  left  it  by 
the  same  way  with  a  dozen  balls,  which  however,  hurt  nobody, 
whistling  after  us,  as  a  parting  salute.  Our  battalion  is  always 
on  the  order  of  the  day.  It  is  the  4th,  and  its  commandant  is 
your  colleague,  M.  I  was  fortunate  enough  to  get  safe  through 
a  day  which  will  no  doubt  be  famous  in  history,  and  to  have 
contributed  to  its  happy  issue. 

"On  the  evening  before  the  day  when  the  Committee  of  Pub- 
lic Safety  met,  I  went  about  five  o'clock,  to  the  square  before 
the  Hotel  de  Ville  to  get  a  little  fresh  air  and  exercise.  I  saw 
there  a  raging  spouter,  surrounded  by  a  considerable  crowd  of 
people.  He  w^as  stirring  them  up  against  the  priests,  and  point- 
ing to  the  Cathedral  ;  '  There,'  he  said,  is  the  enemy.  Our 
foes  are  not  the  Prussians ;  they  are  the  Churches,  the  Priests, 
the  Jesuits,  who  demoralise  and  brutalise  our  children.  We 
must  pull  down  and  destroy  the  cathedral,  and  make  a  causeway 
of  the  stones.'  All  is  quiet  to-day,  thanks  to  the  cannon  and  the 
troops  (Mobiles  and  National  Guards),  who  line  the  whole  road 
thz'ough  the  Champs  Elysees  up  to  the  Tuileries. 

"  What  a  war,  my  dear  Joseph  !  There  is  no  precedent  for 
it  in  the  world's  history,  for  Cfesar  took  seven  years  to  conquer 
Gaul  when  it  was  in  a  state  of  barbarism,  and  in  three  months 
we  have  been  invaded  and  utterly  ruined. 

"  It  seems  all  over  with  the  Imperial  family.  This  makes 
one  party  the  less,  at  any  rate,  and  there  may  be  some  advantage 
in  that. 

"  Till  now  I  have  not  been  compelled  to  eat  horseflesh  ;  but 
the  beef  is  of  a  melancholy  toughness,  and  the  buffalo  flesh, 
which  comes  from  the  Botanic  Gardens,  some  of  which  was 
served  up  to  me  the  other  day,  is  not  much  better.  I  am  quite 
alone  here,  which  does  not  sound  nice ;  but,  thanks  to  music 
and  books,  to  which  I  give  all  my  spare  time,  I  never  weary. 

"  If  there  should  be  an  armistice,  and  you  can  write  to  me, 
do  not  forget,  for  it  is  of  great  importance  for  me  to  learn 
what  you  think  about  all  that  is  going  on.  I  should  like  to 
give  you  some  right  again  to  honor  the  name  of  a  French  diplo- 
matist, which  has  for  the  present  become  a  laughing-stock." 


192        Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War. 


CHAPTER  XL 

I>*CBKASTN-G    ANXIETY    FOR    r>'^rTSTVE    ACTION    IN    SEVEEAL 
DIRECTIONS. 


ABOUT  the  middle  of  November  I  wrote  home*:  "It  is 
stUl  possible  that  we  may  get  back  before  Christmas. 
From  expressions  attributed  to  the  King  in  the  last  few  days 
many  think  it  likely.  For  my  own  part  I  don't  put  much 
faith  in  it,  although  everything  is  going  well,  and  Paris  will 
probably  be  reduced  to  meal  and  horse-flesh,  in  three  or  four 
weeks,^  and  must  accordingly  '  sing  small,'  especially  when 
Hindersin's  big  guns  begin  to  assist  to  rapid  decisions  a  gov- 
ernment made  reasonable  by  starvation.  I  can  understand 
how  our  good  friend  S.  finds  the  thing  slow.  Certainly  the 
war  makes  no  account  of  his  comfort  or  that  of  those  who  feel 
with  him.  Let  him  possess  himself  in  patience  a  while  longer, 
like  our  soldiers,  who  have  to  wait  for  the  end  in  hunger  and 
dirt,  while  he  and  other  fine  people  in  Berlin  lie  on  comfortable 
sofas  and  have  their  cups  and  platters  full.  These  omniscient 
critics  of  the  bar  and  the  tap-room,  with  their  eternal  grumb- 
Jing  and  fault-finding,  are  a  queer  sort,  ridiculous  and  very  un- 
satisfactory." 

In  ail  this  there  was  certainly  some  truth.  But  when  it 
became  clear  that  the  Parisians  had  been  provisioned  for  longer 
than  we  believed,  when  the  big  guns  of  General  Hindersin  kept 
silence  for  weeks  after,  and  the  German  question  would  not  get 
solved  in  the  way  we  wanted,  the  discontent,  even  in  the  house 
in  the  Rue  de  Provence,  increased  daily,  while  rumors  that 
people  who  had  no  business  to  interfere  were  preventing  the 
beginning  of  the  bombardment  gained  greater  and  greater  force 
week  after  week. 

Whether  these  rumors  were  well-grounded  I  must  leave  an 
open  question.     It  is  certain,  however,  that  there  were  other 


Number  of  German  Arm/y  before  Paris.       193 

causes  also  at  work  to  prevent  the  bombardment  beginning 
as  soon  as  people  wished,  and  that  the  effectual  blockade  of 
Paris  itself  was  something  unprecedented.  Let  me  quote,  for 
instance,  what  Major  Blume  said  of  it  in  1871  : — 

"Foreign  military  critics  had  declared  the  blockade  of  Paris 
absolutely  impossible  till  it  actually  took  place,  and  they  had 
very  good  grounds  for  their  opinions.  When  the  inhabitants 
were  first  shut  in,  there  were  nearly  400,000  armed  men  in  the 
city,  some  60,000  of  whom  were  line  troops,  and  nearly  100,- 
000  Gardes  Mobiles  of  the  city  and  the  neighboring  depart- 
ments. The  line  and  the  Mobiles  were  armed  with  a  chasse- 
pot,  and  whatever  the  defects  of  their  military  training,  they 
were  certainly  capable  of  defending  themselves  behind  walls 
and  ditches,  and,  if  properly  led,  of  making  dangerous  sorties. 

The  fortified  enceinte  of  Paris  was  18  miles,  the  line  connect- 
ing the  forts,  34  miles,  the  line  through  the  most  advanced 
outposts  of  the  besieging  army,  50  miles  long  ;  the  direct  tele- 
graph line,  which  joined  up  with  each  other  the  headquarters 
of  the  several  army  corps,  extended  for  not  less  than  90  miles. 
The  German  army,  which  completed  the  investment  on  Sept. 
19,  consisted  of  no  more  than  122,000  infantry,  24,000  cavalry, 
and  622  guns.  The  effective  strength  of  the  difterent  divisions 
had  been  greatly  reduced  by  the  battles  they  had  fought  and 
their  march  as  far  as  Paris.  The  Guards,  for  instance,  num- 
bered only  14,200,  and  the  Fifth  Army  Corps  only  16,000  in- 
fantry. Thus  the  investment  of  Paris  was  a  bold  undertaking, 
far  more  so  than  even  the  French  used  then  to  represent  it,  and 
a  very  little  self-examination  would  convince  them  now  how 
little  right  they  have  to  comfort  themselves  with  fine-sounding 
phrases  about  the  glorious  defence  of  their  capital.  For  four 
long  weeks  there  was  only  a  single  German  foot-soldier  per 
yard  over  the  enormously  long  Hne  of  investment.  Gradually 
the  Eleventh  North  German,  the  First  Bavarian  Army  Corps, 
and  the  relief  troops  melted  in  to  fill  up  the  gaps.  The  fall  of 
Strassburg  freed  the  Guards'  division  of  the  Landwehr,  and  at 
the  close  of  October  our  two  armies  round  Paris  numbered 
202,000  infantry,  33,800  cavalry,  and  898  guns.  Besides  the 
strain  of  outpost  duty,  and  the  perpetual  necessity  of  strength- 
ening the  line  of  investment,  these  troops  had  every  now  and 
then  to  spare  strong  detachments  to  sweep'clear  the  immediate 
neighborhood  of  the  besieging  army.  Taking  all  things  into 
account,  the  number  of  the  German  troops  directly  engaged 


194        Bismarck  in  the  Franco-Gerinan  War. 

i 

in   the  investment   of   Paris  hardly   ever   exceeded    200,000 
men." 

Blume  proceeds  to  explain  what  he  believes  to  have  been  the 
reasons  why  no  attempt  was  made  in  September  to  take  the 
city  by  assault,  and  why  a  regular  siege  was  not  opened  against 
it  afterwards.     The  forts  and  the  enceinte  which  protected  the 
city  could  not  have  been  carried  by  storm.     As  to  a  regular 
siege,  or  even  an  artillery  attack  on  single  forts,  the  chief  ob- 
stacle, apart  from  the  numerical  weakness  of  the  troops  who 
would  have  had  to  undertake  it,  was  our  gi-eat  poverty  in  suit- 
able siege  guns.      These  could  not  be  brought  up  till  after  Toul 
fell  and  the  railway  was  opened  to  Nanteuil  which  was  not  till 
the   last  week   of  September.     Nanteuil  was  still  fifty  miles 
from  Paris,  and  after  the  i-ailway  up  to  it  had  been  cleared  for 
traffic,  the  first  thing  was  to  provide  suitably  for  the  health  and 
comfort  of  the  troops.     Round  Paris  itself  there  were  no  stores 
or  warehouse,  little  indeed  but  wine-shops.     The  army  had  to 
live  from  hand  to  mouth.     Reserve  magazines  had  to  be  or- 
ganized and  filled,  and  till  that  was  done  the  siege  guns  had  to 
wait.     Even  after  the  guns  had  got  to  Nanteuil,  there  was 
plenty  of  trouble.     Nearly  300  cannon  of  the  heaviest  calibre, 
with  five  hundred  rounds  of  shot  and  ammunition  for  each  of 
them,  "  necessary  as  a  first  supply,"  had  to  be  dragged  fifty 
miles  on  waggons  "  over  execrable  roads."     The  necessary  foui-- 
wheeled  carts  could  not  be  collectetl  in  France,  and  long  columns 
of  ammunition  waggons  had  at  last  to  be  brought  from  Ger- 
many.    Through  these  causes  and  othei-s  Major  Blume  asserts 
that  in  December,  when  the  preparations  began  for  the  artillery 
attack  on  Mount  Avron  and  the  forts  on  the  south  of  Paris, 
the  park  of  artillery  was  of  very  moderate  strength.     Besides 
the  forty  rifled  six-pounders,  there  were  only  2.3.5  guns,  nearly 
half  of  which  were  rifled  twelve-pounders.     They  were  hardly 
fit,  as  Blume  says,  to  do  more  than  make  a  sort  of  moral  im- 
pression on  the  city.     But  that,  he  adds,  "was  all  that  was 
wanted,  and  in  the  circumstances  it  was  no  use  arranging  for  a 
regular  siege,  or  for  parallels  of  investment  for  the  reduction  of 
the  forts." 

"About  the  middle  of  January  123  guns  were  playing  on 
the  southern  front  of  Paris.  They  threw  into  the  city  from 
two  to  three  hundred  grenades  daily,  sufficient  to  make  every 
place  on  the  left  bank  of  the  river  '  lively,'  and  to  drive  most 
of  the  inhabitants  from  their  houses.      The  actual  material 


Courtesy  of  a  French  Prisoner.  195 

damage  was  certainly  trifling.  After  the  fall  of  Mezieres,  how- 
ever, a  good  many  more  hea^^  guns  were  placed  in  position, 
and  the  successes  of  our  batteries  in  the  north  enabled  us  to 
prepare  an  attack  of  decisive  moment  against  Saint-Denis,  and 
to  bring  the  northern  half  of  Paris  also  under  fire.  The  powei-s 
of  resistance  had,  however,  by  that  time  been  completely  ex- 
hausted. Shortly  after  the  last  unsuccessful  sortie  on  January 
19,  the  city  laid  down  its  arms,  and  the  armistice  and  peace 
followed  in  due  course." 

I  return  to  the  middle  of  November,  and  1  shall  leave  my 
journal  to  speak  for  itself  as  much  as  I  can. 

Wednesday,  November  16. — The  Chief  is  stUl  out  of  sorts. 
People  attribute  it  partly  to  worry  over  our  negotiations  with 
sevei-al  of  the  South  German  States,  which  seem  once  more  to 
be  hanging  fire,  and  to  his  annoyance  with  the  military  author- 
ities, who  are  supposed  not  even  to  have  asked  his  opinion  on 
several  points  which  involved  more  than  merely  military 
questions. 

After  three  o'clock  I  spent  some  time  again  with  the  officers 
of  the  46th,  who  have  been  run  from  the  outposts  into  this 
haven  of  rest  for  a  few  days,  and  are  making  themselves  com- 
fortable in  the  Chateau  of  Chesnay.  H.,  who  will  now  prob- 
ably soon  get  his  iron  cross,  tells  us  a  pretty  little  anecdote  of 
the  last  few  weeks.  In  the  struggle  near  Malmaison  they  had 
to  get  over  a  breach  in  the  wall  of  a  park,  which,  however, 
was  still  too  high  for  him  to  climb  without  laying  aside  his 
drawn  sword.  He  was  in  some  perplexity,  when  he  noticed  on 
the  other  side  a  handsome,  strapping  French  lad,  who  had  been 
taken  prisoner  and  disai-med.  Calling  him  up  he  asked  him  to 
hold  the  sword.  The  lad  laughingly  did  as  he  was  told,  returned 
him  his  weapon  afterwards  with  a  smile  and  a  bow,  and  did  the 
same  good  turn  for  the  sergeant-major  who  was  clambering  up 
behind  H.  Naturally  the  soldiers  would  have  shot  the  man 
down  on  the  slightest  sign  of  an  inclination  to  keep  the  sword. 
These  Gauls  let  themselves  be  taken  prisoners  now,  H.  thinks, 
without  making  any  difficulty.  The  reason  of  this  is  no  want 
of  food  in  the  Paris  army  so  far.  The  desert^ir  Zouave  sergeant 
caught  at  the  outposts  at  La  Celle  looked  an  extremely  well- 
nourished  person.  Everybody  here  is  eager  and  impatient  for 
the  beginning  of  the  bombardment,  and  everybody  maintains 
for  certain  that  it  has  been  so  far  prevented  by  some  ladies  of 
high  station  interceding  that  the  city  should  be  spared.    To-day 


196        Bismarck  in  the  Franco-Gemian  War. 

people  expected — from  what  signs  or  on  what  grounds  I  omitted 
to  inquire — a  great  sortie  of  the  Parisians.     I  tell  them  that 
such  an  attempt  would  have  far  fewer  chances  of  success  now 
than  some  weeks  ago,  as  Prince  Frederick   Charles   and  his  , 
troops  are  already  at  Rambouillet. 

Count  Waldersee  dines  with  us.  The  Chief  again  complains 
that  the  military  authorities  don't  inform  him  of  everything  of 
importance  that  goes  on.  It  was  after  repeated  entreaties  that 
he  got  them  to  agree  to  send  him,  at  all  events,  what  they  were 
telegraphing  to  the  German  papers.  In  1866  it  was  a  dillerent 
story.  He  was  then  summoned  to  every  consultation.  "  And 
so  I  ought  to  be,"  he  says ;  "  my  business  requires  it ;  I  need 
to  know  all  that  goes  on  in  military  matters,  so  that  I  may  be 
able  to  make  peace  at  the  right  time." 

Thursday,  November  17. — After  breakfasting  with  us,  Del- 
Briick,  who  lived  two  or  three  doors  away,  towards  the  Avenue 
de  Saint-Cloud,  set  out  to-day  for  Berlin,  where  the  Reichstag 
is  to  open  its  sessions.  At  breakfast  we  learned  that  Keudell 
had  been  elected,  but  that  he  would  soon  come  back  to 
us.  Before  breakfast  I  had  looked  through  several  French 
balloon  lettei"s,  also  a  heap  of  Paris  newspapers,  and  among 
them  La  Patrie  of  the  10th,  with  an  interesting  attack  on  the 
provisional  government  by  About — saying  pretty  much  the 
same  thing  as  Figaro  has  been  saying  recently — the  Gazette  de 
lu-artjce  of  the  12th,  and  the  Liberte  of  the  10th.  Afterwards 
I  sent  to  Berlin  a  translation  of  the  letter  which  the  president 
of  the  Roman  JuAta  has  directed  to  the  Allgemeine  Zeitung. 
In  the  afternoon  we  heard  that  Prince  Frederick  Charles  had 
arrived  at  Orleans. 

Alten  and  Prince  Radziwill  were  the  Chief's  guests  at  din- 
ner. Somebody  said  that  there  was  a  rumor  that  Garibaldi, 
with  his  13,000  "free  companions,"  had  been  taken  prisonei'. 
The  Minister  said,  "That  would  be  very  serious;  13,000 
fcFrancs-tireurs,  who  are  not  even  Frenchmen,  made  prisoners — 
why  on  earth  were  they  not  shotl"  He  complained  once  more 
that  the  military  authorities  so  seldohi  ask  his  opinion.  "  There, 
for  instance,  is  this  capitulation  at  Verdun,  which  I  should  cei*- 
tainly  not  have  advised.  They  have  promised  to  give  back  the 
arms  after  peace  is  made,  and  the  French  magistrates  are  to  or- 
der and  settle  everything  meanwhile  as  they  think  proper.  The 
first  is  a  trifle,  for  in  making  peace  we  may  stipulate  that  the 
arms  are  not  to  be  given  back.     But  '  as  they  think  proper !' 


Russia  and  the  Treaty  of  1856.  197 

Our  hands  are  tied  fast,  and  meantime  they  can  go  against  us 
in  everything  and  act  just  as  if  no  war  were  going  on.  They 
might  openly  encourage  a  rising  for  the  Republic,  and  according 
to  the  agreement  we  could  not  protect  ourselves." 

Somebody  then  spoke  of  the  article  of  the  Diplomatist  in  the 
Independance  Beige,  which  prophesies  the  return  of  Napoleon. 
"No  doubt,  "  said  the  Chancellor,  "if  he  has  read  the  article,  he 
is  picturing  somethmg  of  the  kind  to  himself.  After  all,  it  is 
not  quite  impossible.  If  he  made  peace  with  us  he  might  re- 
turn with  the  troops  he  has  in  Germany.  It  is  something  like 
our  Hungarian  legion  on  a  large  scale.  He  is  really  the  regu 
lar  government.  After  the  restoration  of  order  he  would  not 
need  more  than  200,000  men  to  maintain  it.  It  would  not  be 
necessary  to  overawe  the  large  towns  with  troops,  except  Paris. 
Perhaps  Lyons  and  Marseilles  should  be  made  safe ;  but  he  could 
trust  all  the  rest  to  the  National  Guard,  and  if  the  Republicans 
rose  he  could  shoot  them  down.  " 

A  telegram  stating  what  Granville  had  said  about  the  Rus- 
sian declaration  respecting  the  Treaty  of  Paris  was  brought  in, 
and  the  Prince  began  upon  it  at  once.  "It  means  pretty  much 
this,  that  Russia  claims  the  right  to  set  herself  free  from  a  part 
of  the  Treaty  of  185G,  and  on  her  own  initiative  takes  what  can 
only  be  given  her  by  the  collective  powers.  England  cannot 
allow  a  pretension  Kke  this,  which  would  make  any  and  every 
treaty  worthless.  Future  complications  are  much  to  be  feared. " 
The  Minister  laughs,  saying;  "  Future  complications!  Parlia- 
mentary speeches  !  Risk  nothing  !  The  accent  is  on  the  word 
'  Future. '  That  is  the  sort  of  talk  when  people  mean  to  do 
nothing  at  all.  No,  nothing  is  to  be  feared,  as  four  months 
since  nothing  was  to  be  hoped  fx'om  these  people.  If  at  the  be- 
ginning of  the  war  the  English  had  said  to  Napoleon,  '  Don't 
fight, '  this  would  never  have  happened.  "  After  a  while  he 
went  on  ;  "  People  have  alway-s  said  that  the  Russian  policy  is 
diabolically  artful — full  of  shuffles,  and  quirks  and  dodges.  It 
is  nothing  of  the  kind.  Dishonest  people  would  have  made  no 
such  declai*ation  ;  they  would  have  gone  on  quietly  building  war 
ships  in  the  Black  Sea  and  waited  till  somebody  asked  them 
about  it.  Then  they  would  have  said  they  knew  nothing  about 
if,  they  had  '  sent  to  inquire, '  and  they  would  have  wriggled 
out.  They  might  have  kept  that  sort  of  thing  up  a  long  time 
in  Russia,  till  at  last  everybody  had  got  used  to  things  as  they 
were. '"    Bucher  said,    "  They  have  already  three  war  ships  in 


198        Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War. 

the  Black  Sea  built  in  Sebastopol ;  and  if  they  were  told,  You 
can't  have  any  here,  they  might  answer  that  they  really  couldn't 
get  them  away,  as  the  passage  of  the  Dardanelles  was  closed 
against  them  in  1856." 

The  evening  edition  of  the  National  Zeitung  of  the  15th, 
under  the  head  of  Great  Britain,  has  notices  of  Regnier  and  his 
visits  to  us  in  Metz  and  to  Eugenie.  He  is  a  well-to-do  pro- 
prietor, married  to  an  Englishwoman,  and  a  friend  of  Madame 
Lebreton,  one  of  the  Empress's  ladies,  who  escaped  from  France 
before  the  war.  He  seems  a  volunteer  diplomatist,  and  as  we 
had  previously  guessed  among  ourselves,  he  appears  to  have 
undertaken  his  role  of  mediator  on  his  own  prompting.  At  dinner 
the  guests  were  Count  Bray,  the  Minister  von  Lutz,  and  von 
Mancler,  a  Wiirtemburg  officer.  Bray  is  a  tall,  lanky  man,  with 
long,  smooth-hanging  hair  plastered  down  the  side  of  his  head 
and  behind  his  ears,  clean-shaven  all  but  a  short  poverty-stricken 
whisker,  with  thin  lips,  very  thin  hands  and  uncommonly  long 
fingers.  He  says  little,  radiates  a  chill  all  around  him,  and 
certainly  does  not  feel  himself  at  home  where  he  is.  He  might 
easily  be  taken  for  an  Englishman.  The  usual  Jesuit  of  our 
comic  papers  is  very  much  his  sort  of  figure.  Lutz  is  the  exact 
oposite,  middle-aged,  round,  ruddy,  with  a  black  moustache, 
dark  hair  brushed  high  back  from  his  forehead,  with  spectacles, 
brisk  and  talkative.  Mancler  is  an  uncommonly  handsome 
young  fellow.  The  Chief  is  very  good-humored  and  sympa- 
thetic, but  the  conversation  this  time  has  no  particular  signifi- 
cance, turning  mostly  on  beer  questions,  in  discussing  which 
Lutz  was  much  interested,  and  gave  us  a  great  deal  of  infor- 
mation. 

Sunday,  November  20. — The  band  of  a  Thuringian  regi- 
ment woke  the  Chief  with  a  morning  serenade.  He  sent  them 
down  something  to  drink.  Afterwards  he  came  out  to  the 
door,  and  took  a  glass  in  his  hand  saying:  "Prosit!  (good 
luck !)  We  shall  drink  to  our  speedy  return  to  our  mothers."  The 
conductor  asked  him  whether  it  would  be  long  till  that  time. 
The  Minister  answered  :  *'  Well,  we  shan't  spend  our  Christmas 
at  home,  though  the  Reserves  may.  The  rest  of  us  will  have 
to  stay  here  among  the  French.  We  have  a  great  deal  of 
money  to  get  out  of  them.  But  we  are  sure  to  get  it  pret1;y 
soon,"  he  added,  laughing. 

At  dinner  our  guest  was  General  von  Werder,  a  long  man 
with  dark  moustache,  who  is  a  Prussian  Military  Plenipoten- 


Jiqyiter  Gagei^.  199 

tiary  at  St.  Petersburg.  Soon  after  he  came  in,  the  Chief  said, 
^^dth  a  look  of  gratification  on  his  face,  "It  is  possible  that  wc 
may  yet  come  to  terms  with  Bavaria."  "Yes,"  cried  Bohlen, 
"  something  of  the  sort  is  already  mentioned  in  the  telegrams 
of  one  of  the  Berlin  papers,  the  Volkszeitung,  the  Staatshiirger- 
Zeitung,  or  one  of  that  kind."  The  Minister  said,  "I  don't 
like  that.  It  is  too  soon.  After  all,  with  the  lot  of  respectable 
people  who  have  nothing  to  do  and  who  find  things  dull,  there 
is  little  wonder  that  nothing  can  be  kept  quiet."  Afterwards, 
I  can't  now  recall  in  what  connection,  he  happened  to  mention 
this  anecdote  of  his  youth  :  "  When  I  was  quite  small,  there 
was  a  hsiW  or  something  of  the  sort  given  at  our  house,  and  when 
the  company  sat  down  to  table,  I  looked  out  for  a  place 
for  myself  and  found  one  somewhere  in  a  corner  where 
several  gentlemen  were  seated.  They  puzzled  over  the  little 
guest,  and  talked  to  each  other  about  me  in  French  :  'Who  can 
the  child  be  ]'  ^C^eat  peutetre  un  Jih  de  la  inaison,  ouunefi' 
('  Perhaps  it  is  a  boy  of  the  family,  or  a  girl').  *  C'est  un  fils, 
monsieur'  ('  It  is  a  boy,  sir'),  said  I,  quite  unabashed,  and  they 
were  not  a  little  astonished." 

The  conversation  then  turned  on  Vienna  and  Count  Beust, 
and  the  Chief  said  that  Beust  was  apologising  for  the  uncivil 
note  which  had  just  appeared,  declaring  that  Biegeleben,  and 
not  he,  was  the  author.  The  conversation  passed  from  him  to  the 
Gagerns,  and  finally  to  Heinrich  Gagem,  of  whom  people  once- 
thought  so  much.  Talking  about  him  the  Chief  said,  "  He  lets 
his  daughter  be  brought  up  as  a  Catholic.  If  he  thinks  Catho- 
licism the  right  thing  there  is  nothing  to  be  said  ;  but  then  he 
ought  to  become  a  Catholic  himself.  What  he  is  doing  is  mere 
inconsistency  and  cowardice."  "  I  rememljer  that,  in  1850  or 
1851,  Manteuffel  had  been  ordered  to  try  to  airange  an  under- 
standing between  Gagem's  people  and  the  Conservatives  of  the 
Prussian  party — for  as  far,  at  least,  as  the  King  was  willing  to 
go  on  the  German  question."  "  He  tried  it  with  me  and  Gagem 
and  one  day  we  were  invited  to  his  house  to  supper  for  three. 
Politics  at  first  were  hardly  mentioned.  Then  Manteufiel  made 
some  excuse  and  left  us  together.  As  soon  as  he  had  gone,  I 
tackled  Gagem  about  politics,  and  explained  my  whole  position 
in  a  very  sober  and  business-like  way.  You  should  have  heard 
Gagem.  He  put  on  his  Jupiter  face,  lifted  his  eyebrows, 
bristled  up  his  hair,  rolled  his  eyes  about,  fixed  them  on  the 
ceiling  till  they  had  all  but  cracked,  and  talked  at  me  with  his 


200        Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War. 

big  phrases  as  if  I  had  been  a  public  meeting.  Of  course  that 
got  nothing  out  of  me.  I  answered  him  quite  coolly,  and  we 
remained  as  far  apart  as  ever.  When  Manteuffel  came  back 
to  us,  and  Jupiter  had  had  time  to  disappear,  Manteuffel  asked 
me,  'Well,  what  have  you  made  up  with  each  other  1'  'In- 
deed,' said  I,  'nothing  is  made  up.  He  is  frightfully  stupid — 
and  takes  me  for  a  public  meeting,  the  mere  phrase- watering-pot 
of  a  fellow  !     Nothing  is  to  be  done  with  him." 

We  spoke  of  the  bombardment?,  and  the  Chief  said,  "  I  said 
to  the  King  once  more,  so  late  as  yesterday,  that  it  was  now 
full  time  for  it,  and  he  had  nothing  to  say  against  me.  He  told 
me  that  he  had  ordered  it,  but  the  generals  said  they  were  not 
ready. 

After  a  little  the  Chancellor  asked  his  guest,  "  What  may 
every  visit  to  the  Emperor  cost  you  now  1"  I  don't  remember 
what  Werder  replied  ;  but  the  Chief  went  on  :  "In  my  time 
it  was  always  a  pretty  dear  thing,  especially  in  Zarskoje.  I 
had  always  at  that  time  to  pay  fifteen  or  twenty,  sometimes 
five-and-twenty  roubles,  .according  as  I  went  at  the  request  of 
the  Emperor  or  on  my  own  account.  In  the  former  case  it  was 
dearer.  The  coachman  and  footman  who  had  fetched  me,  the 
house-steward  who  received  me — and  when  I  had  been  invited 
he  had  his  sword  at  his  side — the  runner  who  preceded  me 
through  the  whole  length  of  the  castle  to  the  Emperor's  room, 
and  that  must  have  been  a  thousand  yards,  all  had  to  get  some- 
thing. You  know  him,  of  course,  the  fellow  with  the  high 
round  feathers  on  his  head,  like  an  Indian.  He  certainly 
earned  his  five  roubles.  And  I  never  got  the  same  coachman 
to  take  me  back  again.  I  could  not  stand  these  drains.  We 
Prussians  had  very  poor  pay — 25,000  thalers  (£3750)  salary, 
and  8000  thalers  (£1200)  for  rent.  No  doubt  I  had  a  house 
for  that  as  big  and  fine  as  any  palace  in  Berlin.  But  the 
furniture  was  all  old,  faded,  and  shabby,  and  if  I  count  in 
repairs  and  other  expenses,  it  came  to  quite  9000  thalers 
(£1350)  a  year.  I  found  out,  however,  that  I  was  not  expect- 
ed to  spend  more  than  my  salary,  so  I  eked  it  out  by  keeping 
no  company.  The  French  ambassador  had  £12,000  a  year,  and 
was  allowed  to  charge  his  government  with  the  expenses  of  all 
company  which  hecould  at  all  consider  oflicial."  "  But  of  course 
you  had  free  firing,  which  comes  to  a  good  deal  a  year  in  St. 
Petersburg,"  said  Werder.  "I  beg  your  pardon,"  answered 
the  Chief,  "  I  had  to  pay  for  that  myself.     But  the  wood  would 


The  Negotiations  with  Bavaria:  201 

not  have  been  so  dear  if  the  officials  had  not  made  it  dear.  I 
remember  once  seeing  a  fine  load  of  vrood  on  a  Finland  boat ;  I 
asked  the  people  their  price,  and  what  they  named  was  very 
moderate.  I  was  about  to  buy  it,  when  they  asked  me  (he  said 
this  in  Russian)  whether  it  was  for  the  Treasury.  I  was  im- 
prudent enough  to  say  not  for  the  Imperial  treasury,  but  (he 
again  used  the  Russian  words)  for  the  Embassy  of  the  King  of 
Prussia.  When  I  came  back  to  settle  and  get  the  wood  taken 
home,  they  had  all  run  away.  •  If  I  had  given  them  the  address 
of  a  merchant  with  whom  I  could  have  come  to  a  private  under- 
standing, I  should  have  had  it  for  the  third  of  what  I  should 

otherwise  have  paid.     The "  (he  used  again  the  Russian 

word  for  the  Prussian  ambassador)  "  was  in  their  eyes  another 
officer  of  the  Czar's,  and  they  thought,  '  No,  when  he  has  to 
settle  with  us  he  will  say  that  Ave  have  stolen  the  wood, 
and  throw  us  into  prison  till  we  let  him  have  it  for  nothing.' " 
He  went  on  to  tell  other  stor!-'s  of  the  way  in  which  the 
Tchinovniks  torment  and  plunder  the  peasants,  and  came  round 
again  to  the  wretched  pay  of  the  Prussian  ambassador  com- 
pared with  the  others.  "It  is  the  same  thing,"  he  added, 
"  in  Berlin  :  a  Prussian  Minister  gets  10,000  thalers  (£1500), 
while  the  English  ambassador  gets  63,000  (£9450),  and  the 
Russian,  44,000  (£6600) ;  then  he  charges  his  government 
with  the  expense  pf  all  official  entertainments,  and  when  the 
Emperor  stays  with  him  he  usually  gets  a  full  year's  extra 
salary.     No  wonder  we  cannot  keep  pace  with  them." 

Monday,  November  21. — The  negotiations  Avith  Bavaria  don't 
yet  seem  to  be  quite  concluded,  but  he  hopes  he  has  brought 
them  to  a  good  end  on  essential  points.  The  way  in  which  it 
has  been  managed  is  not  to  be  made  out  from  what  one  hears. 
It  seems  clear  to  me  that  the  result  is  a  compromise  in  which 
we  have  maintained  what  is  essential  and  given  way  to  the 
wishes  and  demands  of  others  in  everything  else.  No  sort  of 
pressure  certainly  has  been  put  upon  them.  It  is  conceivable 
that  the  question  whether  Elsass-Lothringen  is  to  be  retained 
or  given  back,  has  constrained  them  to  settle.  Elsass-Lothrin- 
gen can  only  be  asked  from  France  in  the  name  of  and  for  all 
Germany.  The  north  has  no  immediate  need  of  it,  but  to  the 
south,  as  history  can  tell  the  Particularists,  it  is  as  necessary  fts 
daily  bread.  Bavaria  is  a  sharer  in  the  benefit.  It  is  only 
through  her  complete  union  Avith  the  north,  which  v.ill  show 
14 


202        Bismarch  in  the  Franco-German  War. 

every  consideration  for  all  her  wishes,  that  Bavaria  can  secure 
this  wall  of  defence  for  herself  in  the  west. 

About  one  o'clock  the  Chief  has  a  conference  with  Odo  Rus- 
sell, who  was  previously  accredited  from  the  Court  of  St.  James's 
to  Rome.  He  has  probably  to  discuss  with  the  Minister  the 
pretensions  of  Russia  in  respect  to  the  Black  Sea.  After  three 
when  the  Chief  goes  to  the  King,  I  start  with  H.  for  the  Hotel 
de  Chasse,  where  we  drink  middling  French  beer  among  a  crowd 
of  officers  and  army  doctors,  and  chat  with  the  conversable 
landlady  who  dresses  in  black  silks  and  manages  her  business 
from  her  pulpit-like  throne.  The  Minister  distributes  among 
us  a  good  many  out  of  a  parcel  of  three  thousand  cigars  which 
he  received,  I  believe,  as  a  present  from  Bremen.  I  get  my 
share.  They  are  Prensados  and  excellent.  The  Chief  is  not 
with  us  ;  we  have  KnobelsdorfF  as  our  guest, 

Tuesdaj/,  November  22.— While  we  are  sitting  at  late  break- 
fast Lutz  has  a  talk  with  the  Cliief  in  the  salon.  The  latter 
opens  the  door  once  and  asks,  "  Can  any  of  you  gentlemen  tell 
me  how  many  members  Bavaria  has  in  the  Customs  parliament?" 
I  go  to  look  it  up  in  old  Weber's  Illustrated  Calendar,  but  found 
no  information  in  what  is  usually  a  good  authority  on  such 
points.  There  must,  however,  have  been  forty-seven  or  forty 
eight.  After  three  the  Russian  General  Annenkoff  spends 
nearly  an  hour  and  a  quarter  with  the  Minister.  At  dinner  we 
have .  Prince  Pless  and  a  Count  Stolberg.  The  talk  runs  on  a 
great  discovery  of  fine  wines  which  were  hidden  in  some  hill  or 
cellar  in  Bougival.  It  has  been  duly  confiscated  according  to 
the  rules  of  war,  as  it  falls  under  the  head  of  sustenance.  B., 
who  is  our  high  steward,  complains  that  none  of  it  has  come  our 
way.  And,  indeed,  on  every  occasion  the  foreign  office  is  served 
as  shabbily  as  can  be.  They  seem  to  try  to  palm  off  the  most 
inconvenient  lodgings  on  the  Chief,  and  to  succeed  pretty  gen- 
erally in  finding  them.  "Yes,"  says  he,  laughing.  "They 
certainly  don't  behave  nicely  to  me.  It  is  most  ungrateful  of 
these  military  people  whose  interests  I  have  always  defended 
in  the  Reichstag !  They  will  find  me  a  changed  man  soon. 
When  I  started  for  the  Avar  I  was  all  for  them,  when  I  get 
back  I  shall  be  a  complete  parliamentarian.  "  Prince  Pless 
praises  the  Wiirtemberg  troops,  who  make  an  admirable  im- 
pression, and  who  come  next  our  own  men  in  soldierly  bearing. 
The  Chancellor  agrees  with  him,  but  must  put  a  word  in  for 
the  Bavarians.     It  seems  to  gi'atfy  him  particularly  that  they 


Shooting  First  203 

make  such  short  work  in  shooting  down  the  Franc-tireur  rob- 
bers. "  Our  North  Germans  go  too  much  by  the  letter.  When  a 
bushranger  of  that  sort  shoots  at  a  Holstein  dragoon,  the  soldi- 
er flings  himself  from  his  horse,  runs  after  the  man  with  his 
heavy  sabre,  catches  him  and  brings  him  to  his  lieutenant,  who 
either  lets  him  off  or  hands  him  over  to  his  superior  officer,  Avho 
is  sure  to  do  so.  The  Bavarian  knows  better,  and  makes  war 
in  the  good  old  way,  not  waiting  till  he  has  been  shot  at  from 
behind,  but  shooting  first.  "  We  have  caviare  and  pheasant 
pasty  on  the  table,  the  one  provided  by  the  Baroness  von  Keu- 
dell  and  the  other  by  the  Countess  Hatzfeld ;  and  Swedish 
punch  is  handed  round. 

Wednesday,  November  23. — Early  this  morning  1  said  to  one 
of  the  councillors,  "  Do  you  know  how  matters  are  now  getting 
on  with  the  Bavarian  negotations  %  WUl  the  affair  be  settled, 
do  you  suppose,  this  evening  %" — "Yes"  he  said,  "  unless  some- 
thing new  turn  up;  but  any  trifle  might  break  them  off.  " — "Do 
you  know  what  was  the  point  on  which  the  negotiations  nearly 
came  to  grief  a  short  time  agof — "You  would  never  guess;  it 
was  the  question  of  collars  or  epaulettes.  "  As  I  was  called 
away  at  the  moment,  I  could  not  solve  this  riddle ;  but  I  learn- 
ed afterwards  that  the  question  had  been  whether  the  Bavarian 
officers  were  in  future  to  wear  the  mark  of  their  rank,  as  hith- 
erto, on  their  collars  or  on  their  shoulders,  like  the  North 
Germans. 

There  was  some  talk  about  the  Duke  of  Cobnrg,  and  after- 
wards about  the  aqueduct  at  Marly,  which  had  not  been  touch- 
ed by  the  guns  of  the  forts ;  and  then  Prince  Putbus  spoke  of  a 
certain  Marchioness  Delia  Torre,  who  had,  he  said,  had  a  some- 
what stormy  past,  who  liked  campaigning,  who  had  been  with 
Garibaldi  before  Naples,  had  been  staying  here  with  us  for  some 
time,  and  was  going  about  with  the  Geneva  Cross.  Somebody 
spoke  of  the  picture  which  had  been  ordered  from  Bleibtreu, 
and  another  of  the  guests  spoke  of  the  rough  sketch  of  a  picture 
representing  General  ReiUe  bringing  Napoleon's  letter  to  the 
King  on  the  hill  before  Sedan.  They  said  that  the  General  was 
taking  off  his  hat  as  if  he  was  about  to  shout  Hurrah  I  or  Yivat! 
the  Chief  remarked;  "He  behaved  himself  throughout  -svith 
propriety  and  dignity.  I  had  a  talk  with  him  alone  while  the 
King  was  writing  the  answer.  He  represented  to  me  that  we 
ought  not  to  impose  hard  conditions  on  so  large  an  army  which 
had  fought  so  welL     I  shrugged  my  shoulders.     Then  he  said 


204        Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War. 

that  before  they  would  give  in  to  such  conditions,  they  would 
blow  themselves  up  sky-high  with  the  fortress.  I  said,  'Do  it 
if  you  like.'  'Faites  sauter.'  Then  I  asked  him  whether  the 
Emperor  was  quite  sure  of  his  army  and  his  officers.  He  said, 
'  Certainly!'  And  whether  his  orders  would  still  be  obeyed  in 
Metz.  Reille  said  they  would,  and  we  have  since  seen  that  at 
that  time  he  was  right.  If  he  had  made  peace  then,  I  believe 
he  would  now  have  been  a  reigning  sovereign  ;  but  he  is — as  I 
said  sixteen  years  since,  when  nobody  would  believe  me — stupid 
and  sentimental.  " 

About  ten  o'clock  I  went  in  to  tea,  and  found  Bismarck-Bohlen 
and  Hatzf  eld  still  there.  The  Chief  was  engaged  with  the  three 
Bavarian  plenipotentiaries  in  the  salon.  After  a  quarter  of  an 
hour  or  so,  he  threw  open  the  folding-doors,  put  his  head  in, 
looked  round  kindly,  and,  when  he  saw  that  there  were  several 
of  us,  came  up  to  us  and  sat  down  at  the  table  with  a  glass  in 
his  hand.  "  Now,"  said  he  excitedly,  "  the  Bavarian  business 
is  settled,  and  everything  signed.  We  have  got  our  German  unity, 
and  our  Emperor."  There  was  silence  for  a  moment.  Then 
I  begged  to  be  allowed  to  take  the  pen,  with  which  he  had 
signed  the  document.  "In  God's  name,"  said  he,  "Take  all 
three  of  them,  if  you  like  ;  but  the  gold  pen  is  not  there."  I 
went  and  took  possession  of  the  three  pens  which  were  lying 
beside  the  document,  two  of  them  still  wet.  (W.  afterwards 
told  me  thattheone  the  Chancellor  had  used  was  that  with  feathers 
on  both  sides.)  Two  empty  champagne  bottles  stood  on  the 
table.  "  Bring  us  another,"  said  the  Chief  to  a  servant,  "it  is 
a  great  occasion."  After  musing  a  little,  he  remarked,  "The 
newspapers  won't  be  satisfied,  and  a  historian  writing  in  the  or- 
dinary spirit  may  very  likely  condemn  our  convention.  He 
may  say  [  I  am  giving  his  exact  words,  as  I  always  do  where  I 
use  quotation  marks  ],  "  The  stupid  fellow  might  easily  have 
asked  for  more  ;  he  would  have  got  it ;  they  would  have  had  to 
give  in  to  him  ;  his  might  was  his  right.'  I  was  more  anxious 
that  these  people  should  go  away  heartily  satisfied.  What  are 
treaties  worth  which  i^eople  are  forced  to  sign  1  I  know  that 
tliey  went  away  satisfied.  I  don't  want  to  press  them,  or  to 
take  full  advantage  of  the  situation.  The  convention  has  its 
defects,  but  it  is  the  stronger  on  account  of  them.  I  count  it 
the  most  important  thing  which  we  have  accomplished  during 
recent  years.  "  ,  .  "As  for  the  Emperor,  I  reconciled  them 
to  that  during  the  negotiations  by  representing  that  it  would 


Capitulation  of  Thionville.  205 

be  much  pleasanter  and  easier  to  concede  certain  points  to  the 
German  Emperor  than  to  the  neighboring  King  of  Prussia.  " 
.  .  .  Afterwards,  over  a  second  bottle  which  he  drank  with  us 
and  Abeken,  who  had  come  in,  in  the  meantime,  he  began  to 
talk  about  his  death,  and  mentioned  the  exact  age  at  which  it 
would  happen.  .  .  .  "I  know  it,  "  he  said,  when  somebody  re- 
monstrated, "  it  is  a  mystic  number.  " 

Friday,  November  25. — Before  breakfast,  I  telegraphed  the 
capitulation  of  Thionville,  which  happened  during  the  night. 
I  prepared  for  the  King's  reading  an  article  in  the  Neue 
Freie  Presse,  describing  Granville's  note  as  feeble  and  color- 
less, and  I  took  care  that  all  our  newspapers  should  repro- 
duce the  telegrams  of  July  la.st,  assuring  Napoleon  of  the 
concurrence  of  the  French  people  in  the  declaration  of  war  he 
then  sent  us. 

In  the  afternoon  I  spent  an  hour  with  W.  in  the  gallery  of 
historical  portraits  in  the  chateau,  which  of  its  kind  is  of  the 
greatest  value,  and  which  includes  a  very  interesting  half  length 
of  Luther.  Afterwards  we  had  a  walk  through  the  principal 
streets  of  the  town  to  the  two  chief  churches  ,  and  to  Hoche's 
monument.  We  met,  as  usual,  crowds  of  priests,  nuns  and 
monks,  and  marvelled  at  the  number  of  wine-shops  and  coffee- 
houses which  supply  Versailles.  One  of  these  establishments 
is  called  the  "Smoking  Dog"  (Au  chien  qui/unie),  a  dog  with 
a  tobacco  pipe  in  his  mouth  being  painted  on  the  signboard. 
The  people  at  the  door-steps,  and  especially  the  women,  were 
everywhere  polite.  The  newspapers  say  that  mothers  and 
nurses  turn  their  backs  when  a  German  pats  a  chUd  on  the 
cheek,  I  have  never  seen  anything  of  the  kind ;  on  the  con- 
trary, they  were  always  quite  plea.sed,  and  said,  ^'Faites  minette 
a  monsieur  f  ("Cui^isey  to  the  gentleman").  No  doubt,  the 
upper  classes  are  seldom  seen  in  the  streets,  and  when  they  do 
appear  the  ladies  are  in  mourning — -for  the  misfortimes  of  their 
country,  of  course — and  because  black  is  becoming. 

Saturday,  November  26. — Wrote  several  articles  ;  one  on  the 
extraordinary  list  of  honorable  mentions  by  Trochu  in  the 
Figaro  on  the  22nd.  The  Chief  read  out  to  me  portions  of 
pa.ssages  which  he  had  marked  in  pencil,  saying,  "  Many  of  the 
heroic  deeds  of  these  defenders  of  Paris  are  .such  commonplace 
affairs  that  Prussian  generals  would  never  think  them  worth 
mentioning.  Some  of  them  are  mere  brag ;  others  manifest 
impo.ssibilities,     Trochu's  heroes  have  made  more  prisoners,  if 


206        Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War. 

you  count  them  up,  than  the  French  have  done  altogether  during 
the  whole  siege  of  Paris.  Captain  Montbrisson  distinguished 
himself  by  marching  at  the  head  of  an  assaulting  column,  and 
getting  himself  lifted  over  a  park-wall  to  make  a  reconnais- 
sance— as  it  was  his  bounden  duty  to  do.  Then  you  have  the 
farce  of  a  soldier  called  Gletty,  who  made  three  Prussian  prison- 
ers— par  la  fermele  de  son  attitude.  It  was  the  firmness  of  his 
attitude  which  brought  our  Pomeranians  to  their  knees !  It 
might  be  all  well  enough  in  a  Paris  theatre  on  the  Boulevards, 
or  in  a  circus,  but  fancy  it  in  real  life  !  Then  there  was  Hotf,  who 
killed  neither  more  nor  fewer  than  seven-and-twenty  Prussians  in 
different  single  combats.  This  three-times-nine  man  must  cer- 
tainly be  a  Jew,  perhaps  the  cousin  of  Malzhoff  in  one  of  the 
Wilhelmstrasses.  At  all  events  he  is  a  miles  gloriosics.  Lastly, 
we  have  Terreaux,  who  captured  a, /anion  (color)  along  with  the 
staff  to  which  it  was  fastened.  Properly .  speaking  that  is  the 
color  of  a  company,  which  we  do  not  have  in  Germany.  Such 
is  the  stuff  a  commander-in-chief  publishes  officially.  The  list 
of  honorable  mentions  reminds  me  of  the  battle-pieces  of 
"Toutes  les  Glories  de  la  France"  (in  Versailles),  where  every 
drummer-boy  from  Sebastopol  and  Magenta  has  had  his  por- 
trait taken  for  beating  his  drum. 

Count  Schimmelmann  (a  light  blue  hussar,  with  a  face  of  a 
somewhat  Oriental  type,  apparently  in  his  last  twenties)  and 
Hatzfeld's  brother-in-law  (a  brisk  and  self-confident  American) 
were  the  Chancellor's  guests  to-night.  He  said  to  us  :  "I  was 
yesterday  the  victim  of  a  whole  swarm  of  mishaps,  one  after  the 
other.  First,  I  was  to  have  had  a  conversation  with  Odo  Ptussell, 
who  had  important  business.  I  sent  him  a  message  to  wait  a 
couple  of  minutes  for  me,  as  I  was  occupied  with  another  press- 
ing matter.  After  a  quarter  of  an  hour  I  came  out,  and  found 
him  gone,  and  the  peace  of  Europe  may  perhaps  have  depended 
upon  it.     Then  about  twelve  I  got  off  to  wait  on  the  King,  and 

fall  by  the  way  into  the  hands  of ,  who  compels  me  to  listen 

to  a  letter,  and  holds  me  prisoner  a  long  while.  In  that  way  I 
lose  a  whole  hour,  during  which  telegrams  of  great  importance 
ought  to  have  been  despatched.  The  people  concerned  may 
perhaps  not  have  got  them  to-day  at  all,  and  decisions  may  have 
been  come  to  and  relationships  established  in  the  meantime  wliich 
may  have  very  serious  consequences  for  the  whole  of  Europe, 
and  may  completely  alter  the  political  situation.  All  this  hap- 
pened," he  said,  "because  it  was  a  Friday." 


Mr.  Home,  the  Spiritualist.  207 

Afterwards  he  asked,  "  Have  any  of  you  gentlemen  told  the 
Mayor  to  provide  properly  in  the  Trianon  for  the  King  of 
Bavaria  f  Hatzfeld  replied  that  he  had  himself  seen  the  Mayor 
about  the  matter.  The  Chief  replied,  "  Excellent ;  I  hope  he 
will  come.  I  never  imagined  that  I  should  have  to  play  the 
part  of  house-steward  of  the  Trianon.  "What  would  Napoleon  I. 
and  Louis  XIV.  have  said  to  that  ]"  Somebody  remarked  that 
the  American  spiritualist,  Home,  had  been  here  several  days, 
and  had  been  invited  to  dine  Avith  the  Crown  Prince.  Bucher 
described  him  as  a  dangerous  man,  and  added  that  he  had  been 
condemned  in  England  for  some  underhand  business  about  a 
legacy.  After  dinner  he  told  me  that,  according  to  the  news- 
papers. Home  had  some  time  ago  swindled  a  legacy  in  his  own 
favor  out  of  a  rich  widow,  that  the  lawful  heir  had  prosecuted 
him,  and  that  he  had  ultimately  been  condemned  by  the  court 
to  pay  a  large  sum  in  damages.  It  was  to  be  feared  that  he 
had  been  sent  here  now  by  somebody  to  influence  important 
personages  to  ovir  injury,  and  Bucher  said  he  would  try  to  induce 
the  Chief  to  get  the  fellow  turned  away. 

Sunday,  November  27. — In  the  morning  we  received  the 
speech  made  at  the  opening  of  the  Reichstag.  I  sent  it  imme- 
diately to  L.,  so  that  he  might  translate  it  and  get  it  printed  in 
the  newspapers.  After  twelve,  Russell  appeared  again.  The 
Chief  asked  him  to  wait  for  ten  minutes,  and  spent  that  time 
walking  up  and  down  with  Bucher  in  the  garden. 

Covint  Lehndorf  and  a  Bavarian  ofiicer  (Count  Holnstein)  a 
handsome,  straight-built  man,  with  a  full  red  face  and  a  pleasant 
open  manner,  apparently,  we  thought,  about  thirty  years  of  age, 
were  at  dinner.  I  hear  that  he  is  the  Master  of  the  Horse  to 
King  Ludwig,  and  one  of  his  confidants.  The  Chief  spoke  first 
about  the  Russian  affair,  and  said :  "  Vienna,  Florence,  and 
Constantinople  have  kept  quiet  about  it  so  far ;  but  Petersburg 
and  London,  wliich  have  spoken,  are  the  important  places.  It 
will  all  come  right  in  the  end."  Then  he  told  several  anecdotes 
of  his  sportsman's  life — of  chamois-hunting,  "for  which  he  has 
not  breath  enough  now  ;"  of  the  heaviest  Avild  boar  he  had  killed, 
"the  liead  alone  weighed  between  99  and  101  lbs.;"  and  of  the 
biggest  bear  he  had  shot. 

After  dinner,  at  which  we  always  smoke,  the  Minister  gives 
us  each  a  big,  full-flavored,  first-rate  cigar,  saying,  "Pass  the 
bottle."  His  gi-ateful  countrymen  have  recently  been  particu- 
larly mindful  to  supply  him  with  cigars,  and  on  his  sideboard 


208        Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War. 

stands  box  upon  box  of  weeds,  so  that,  God  be  praised,  lie  lias 
enough  of  what  he  likes  in  that  way. 

L.  told  us  that  Home  left  yesterday,  if  I  understood  him 
rightly.  He  has  ordered  the  Moniteur  to  be  sent  after  him  to 
London,  having  subscribed  to  the  paper  for  a  month.  Perhaps 
this  and  the  whole  affair  of  his  journey  to  our  head-quarters  may 
have  been  only  a  ghostly  spiritualist  hocus-pocus ;  but  it  looks 
suspicious  that  this  Cagliostro  from  Yankee-land  should  have 
asked  whether  he  might  speak  to  the  son  of  Worth,  the  great 
London  tailor,  who  "  lets  duchesses  wait  in  his  salon,"  and  who 
was  caught  in  one  of  the  balloons.  It  is  said  that  Home  will 
come  back  again. 


Home  and  Garibaldi.  209 


CHAPTER  XII. 

THE    DIFFICULTY    IN    THE     REICHSTAG    ABOUT    THE     CONVENTION 
WITH    BAVARIA   REMOVED THE    BOMBARDMENT    PUT    OFF. 


MONDAY,  November  28. — Early  in  the  morning  I  tele- 
graph the  capitulation  of  La  Fere,  with  2,000  men,  and 
the  victory  of  Manteuffel  on  the  Somme  at  Ladon  and  Maizi- 
eres.  Afterwards  I  prepared  an  article  on  the  Convention^  with 
Bavaria.  The  Chief  asks  about  Home,  and  I  tell  him  tlikt  he 
is  gone,  but  is  expected  back.  He  orders  me  to  write  at  once 
to  the  military  authorities  that  if  Home  returns  without  a  per- 
mit, he  is  to  be  immediately  put  in  prison,  and  word  brought 
to  the  Chief.  If  he  appears  with  a  permit,  he  is  to  be  watched 
as  a  treacherous  spy  and  swindler,  and  his  arrival  reported  at 
once  to  the  Minister. 

In  the  afternoon  Bucher  and  I  made  a  carriage  excursion  to 
St.  Cyr ;  Prince  Pless  and  Count  Maltzahn  were  with  us  at 
dinner.  The  Minister  spoke,  first  of  all,  of  the  American 
spiritualist,  and  told  us  what  he  thought  of  him,  and  what  he 
had  aiTanged  to  have  done  about  him.  Bohlen  said  :  "  And 
you  know,  too,  that  Garibaldi  also  lias  taken  him.self  off." 
Somebody  said  :  "  If  we  could  catch  him  he  ought  to  be  shot, 
for  he  had  no  business  to  shove  himself  into  this  war."  "  He 
should  first  be  put  in  a  cage  and  exhibited  publicly,"  said 
Bohlen.  "  No,"  said  the  Minister,  "  I  would  try  another  plan. 
I  would  send  the  prisoners  to  Berlin,  with  bits  of  pasteboard 
round  their  necks,  and  the  word  '  Gratitude '  printed  on  them. 
After  which  they  should  be  sho^  through  the  town."  Bohlen 
said  :  "  And  then  to  Spandau."  The  Chief  answered,  "  Or  you 
might  write  on  the  card  'From  Venice  to  Spandau.'  " 

Afterwards  we  talked  about  Bavaria,  and  the  situation  in 
Munich.  Somebody,  in  what  connection  I  don't  recollect,  once 
more  referred  to  the  circumstances  of  Reille's  appearance  at 


210        Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War. 

Sedan,  and  it  seemed  as  if  the  King  then  expected  more  from 
the  letter  of  the  Emperor  Napoleon,  as,  indeed,  according  to 
what  the  Minister  said  once  before,  he  had  been  justified  in 
doing.  The  Emperor  ought  not  to  have  surrendered  himself 
a  prisoner  there  with  no  object ;  he  shouJd  have  concluded  peace 
with  us.  The  generals  would  have  stood  by  him.  Then  we 
talked  about  the  bombardment,  and,  in  connection  with  it,  of 
Bishop  Dupauloup  and  his  present  intrigues,  and  afterwards  of 
the  part  he  had  played  in  the  opposition  at  the  Council.  "  I 
remember,"  said  the  Chancellor,  "  that  the  Pope  read  a  very 
clear  letter  to  the  French  Bishops,  or  to  several  of  them,  order- 
ing them  not  to  mix  themselves  up  with  the  Garibaldians." 
Somebody  said  that  something  lay  very  much  at  his  heart. 
The  Chief  answered,  "  What  is  nearest  my  heart  just  now  is 
what  may  be  going  on  at  the  Villa  Coublay.  If  they  would 
give  me  the  command-in-chief  for  four-and-twenty  hours,  and  I 
were  to  take  the  responsibility  on  mj'self,  I  should  give  you 
just  one  order — '  Fire  ! '  "  The  Villa  Coublay  is  a  place  not 
very  far  from  here,  where  the  siege  artillery  is  collected  in  a 
park,  instead  of  being  brought  into  the  forts  and  batteries,  and 
the  Chancellor  has  made  the  most  urgent  representations  to 
hasten  the  bombardment.  "  You  have  300  guns,  all  told,"  he 
went  on ;  "  and  fifty  or  sixty  mortars,  and  for  every  piece  you 
have  five  hundred  rounds — surely  that  is  enough.  I  have 
spoken  to  artillerists  who  say  that  at  Strassburgthey  did  not 
use  half  of  what  is  already  piled  up  here,  and,  compared  with 
Paris,  Strassburg  Avas  a  Gibraltar."  "  Perhaps  you  might  have 
to  fire  some  Barracks  in  Mont  Valerian,  and  overwhelm  Forts 
Issy  and  Vanvres  with  your  grenades,  so  as  to  clear  them  out. 
The  enceinte  is  very  weak,  and  the  ditch  no  bigger  than  the 
length  of  this  room."  "  I  am  convinced  that  if  we  could  throw 
grenades  for  four  or  five  days  into  the  town  itself,  and  they 
once  saw  that  we  can  fire  further  than  they  can,  namely,  9,000 
yards,  they  would  sing  small  in  Paris.  No  doubt  the  fine  quar- 
ters lie  on  this  side  of  the  town,  and  the  people  in  Belleville 
would  not  care  a  straw  though  they  were  all  wrecked.  Indeed, 
they  would  rub  their  hands  o-v^r  the  destruction  of  the  houses 
of  the  rich."  "We  might  certainly  have  left  Paris  alone,  and 
gone  further,  but  now  that  we  have  begun  it  we  must  put  it 
through.  The  plan  of  starving  them  out  may  take  a  long  while 
yet,  perhaps  till  the  beginning  of  the  year.  They  have  certain- 
ly meal  up  till  January.     If  we  had  only  begun  the  bombard- 


The  Vital  Point  211 

ment  four  weeks  ago,  we  should  in  all  probability  have  been  by 
this  time  in  Paris,  which  is  the  vital  point.  As  it  is,  the  Paris- 
ians fancy  that  London,  St.  Petersburg,  and  Vienna  are  keeping' 
us  from  tiring,  and  the  neutral  Powers  believe,  in  their  turn, 
that  we  can't  do  it.  Some  day,  however,  the  real  reasons  will 
be  revealed." 

In  the  evening  I  telegraphed  to  London  that  liiC  R«ichstag 
had  again  voted  a  hundred  million  thalers  (£15,000,000)  to- 
wards the  prosecution  of  the  war  with  France,  and  that  eight 
social  democrats  only  voted  against  it,  also  that  ManteufFel  had 
ocupied  Amiens.  Afterwards  several  articles  were  prepared, 
one  to  defend  the  Chancellor  and  explain  how  satisfactorj'  his 
position  had  been  in  the  negotiations  Avith  Bavaria,  and  how 
much  had  been  due  both  to  his  moderation  and  his  sagacity. 
The  vital  point,  as  I  said,  was  not  that  any  particular  concession 
should  be  got  out  of  the  Munich  people,  but  that  the  South 
German  States  should  feel  at  home  in  the  organization  of  the 
new  German  State.  Any  pressure  or  consti'uint  to  extract 
further  concessions  from  them  would  be  ingratitude,  especially 
as  they  have  fully  discharged  their  patriotic  obligations.  It 
would,  besides,  be  bad  policy  to  press  any  more  urgent  claims 
on  our  allies.  The  discontent  which  would  be  the  inevitable 
consequence  would  do  us  far  more  harm  than  half-a-dozen  slightly 
improved  paragraphs  in  a  treaty  could  ever  do  us  good.  It 
would  at  once  reveal  to  the  neutral  powers,  Austria  and  the 
rest  of  them,  the  place  where  a  wedge  might  be  driven  home, 
which  might  loosen  and  in  the  end  split  to  pieces  the  unity  just 
realized. 

Tuesday,  November  29. — In  the  morning  the  mouths  of  the 
French  cannon  growled  out  to  us  a  .savager  salute  than  ever, 
while  I  have  the  gi^atification  to  telegraph  new  triumphs  of  the 
German  arms.  Yesterday,  for  instance,  Garibaldi  had  severe 
losses  at  Dijon,  and  Prince  Frederick  Charles's  troops  defeated 
the  more  numerous  French  army  opposed  to  them  at  Beaune  la 
Rolande.  When  I  laid  the  second  of  these  telegrams  before  the 
Chief,  he  said,  "  To  say  many  hundred  prisoners  is  to  say  nothing ; 
many  hundreds  means  at  least  a  thousand.  To  -put  our  loss  at 
a  thousand  men,  and  say  nothing  more  of  the  enemy  than  that 
he  sustained  severe  losses,  would  be  a  piece  of  clumsiness  of 
which  we  ought  to  have  too  much  sense  to  be  guilty.  I  beg  you 
in  future  to  make  up  your  telegrams  more  carefully." 

At  breakfast  we  learn  that  the  thunder  of  the  cannon  was  to 


212        Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War. 

support  a  sortie  of  the  Parisians  in  the  direction  of  Villeneuve, 
where  the  Bavarians  are,  which  was  repulsed.  A  few  shots 
were  still  to  be  heard  from  the  forts  as  late  as  one  o'clock. 
Something  more  seems  to  have  been  expected,  for  several  bat- 
teries are  standing  ready  to  start,  on  the  Avenue  de  Saint- 
Cloud. 

In  the  afternoon  I  sent  off  another  article  on  the  convention 
with  Bavaria,  which  is  to  be  reproduced  in  various  forms  in 
Berlin.  A  grudging  dissatisfaction  seems  to  be  the  prevailing 
mood  there.  Afterwards  I  ran  off  to  the  little  place  at  Chesnay, 
where  my  lieutenants  are  having  all  sorts  of  fun.  I  found  them, 
for  instaiice,  singing  the  song  of  the  eleven  thousand  virgins  of 
Cologne. 

We  had  Lieutenant-Colonel  von  Hartrott  at  dinner.  The 
conversation  turned  on  the  distribution  of  the  Iron  Cross,  and 
the  Chief  observed,  "  The  doctors  ought  to  have  it  on  their  black 
and  white  sashes ;  they  are  under  fire,  and  it  takes  much  more 
courage  and  sense  to  let  yourself  be  shot  at  without  doing  any- 
thing than  to  go  with  a  storming  party."  Blumenthal  said  to 
me  that  he  at  any  rate  could  not  earn  one,  for  it  is  his  duty  to 
keep  himself  out  of  danger  of  being  shot.  Accordingly  he  always 
looks  out  for  a  place  from  which  he  can  have  a  good  view  of 
everything,  with  very  little  chance  of  being  hit ;  and  he  is  quite 
right ;  a  general  who  exposes  himself  needlessly  ought  to  be  put 
under  arrest.  We  talked  next  of  the  handling  of  the  army,  and 
he  said,  "  Modesty  and  moderation  are  the  only  things  to  ensure 
victory;  conceit  and  insolence  bring  certain  defeat."  Then  he 
asked  Hartrott  whether  he  was  a  Brunswicker.  "  No,"  he  said, 
"I  am  from  the  district  of  Aschersleben."  "  I  make  out  from 
your  accent,"  said  the  Minister,  "  that  you  came  from  the  Harz, 
but  not  from  which  side."  Aschersleben  suggested  Magdeburg, 
which  reminded  him  of  his  friend  Dietze,  of  whom  he  said,  "  He 
is  the  most  estimable  man  I  know,  his  house  is  the  pleasantest 
and  most  comfortable  for  a  visitor  I  have  ever  been  in.  There 
is  good  hunting  and  capital  keep,  and  his  wife  is  perfectly  charm- 
ing. Then  he  is  full  of  that  genuine  native  heartiness — the 
politease  de  casur — nothing  made  up.  What  a  difference  between 
the  hunting  party  given  by  a  man  who  goes  out  without  a  gun. 
and  whose  delight  it  is  to  see  his  friends  shoot  well,  and  one 
where  it  is  perfectly  understood  that  the  master  is  to  have  most 
of  the  shooting,  and  that  bad  temper  and  swearing  at  the  servants 
are  a  matter  of  course,  if  he  does  not  get  it."     Abeken  wondered 


Theatrical  Pardonrag  of  a  Soldier.  213 

•whether  politesse  de  cceur  was  native  French  or  imported.  "  Not 
a  doubt,"  said  the  Chief,  "that  the  >hrase  was  borrowed  from 
us.  The  thing  itself  exists  only  among  the  Germans.  I  should 
call  it  the  courteousness  of  good-will  and  of  kindly  feeling  in  the 
best  sense  of  the  word — the  courteousness  of  a  man  inclined  to 
be  helpful  to  one.  You  come  across  it  among  our  common 
soldiers,  often  certainly  in  the  clumsiest  forms.  But  the  French 
have  none  of  it ;  their  courteousness  is  begotten  only  of  hatred 
and  en%y.''  He  went  on  to  say  that  the  English  had  something 
of  the  sort,  and  praised  Odo  Russell,  whose  natural  and  straight- 
forward ways  were  thoroughly  to  his  liking.  "  One  thing  only 
made  me  at  first  a  little  suspicious  of  him.  I  had  always  heard, 
and  my  own  experience  had  confirmed  it,  that  an  Englishman 
who  could  speak  good  French  was  a  doubtful  character,  and  Odo 
IRiiccp]]  speaks  French  quite  admirably.  But  then  he  speaks 
German  just  as  wclL" 

^^  ue.-5jsc:rt  he  said,  "  I  see  that  I  eat  too  mi\ch,  or  perhaps 
too  much  at  a  time.  I  can't  get  out  of  the  stupid  habit  of  eating 
only  once  a  day.  Some  time  ago  it  was  even  worse.  I  used  to 
drink  my  cup  of  tea  early  in  the  morning,  and  tasted  no  food  at 
all  till  five  o'clock  at  night.  I  smoked  'even  on,'  and  it  did 
me  a  great  deal  of  harm.  Now  my  doctors  make  me  take  at 
least  a  couple  of  eggs  in  the  morning,  and  I  don't  smoke  much. 
But  I  ought  to  eat  oftener,  only  if  I  take  anything  late  I  am 
kept  awake  all  night  digesting  it." 

In  the  evening  I  had  again  to  telegraph  the  news  of  our 
\'ictory  at  Beaune,  the  French  attempt  to  break  through  in  the 
direction  of  Fontainbleau,  with  the  bulk  of  the  Loire  army, 
having  been  utterly  bafiled.  Afterwards  I  was  directed  to  send 
off  a  telegram  to  the  War  Ministiy  in  Berlin,  requesting  them 
to  issue  letters  of  caption,  and  to  send  them  to  us  for  publication 
in  the  French  papers,  after  all  the  French  officers  who  have 
broken  their  parole  and  made  their  escape  from  captivity,  a 
practice  which  is  becoming  alarmingly  frequent  among  these 
gentlemen.  Afterwards  he  showed  me  a  report  from  an  adju- 
tant of  Keratiy,  the  commander  of  the  Breton  army,  on  the 
aV)Surd  and  theatrical  pardoning  of  a  soldier,  which  I  was  told 
to  reproduce,  with  a  little  commentary,  in  our  Moniteur,  and 
which  I  give  here  as  a  specimen  of  the  way  in  which  these  new- 
fangled dilettanti  officers  show  off,  and  how  they  get  themselves 
noticed  and  praised  in  the  newspapers.  A  few  days  ago,  Count 
Keratry  authorized  the  following  publication  : — 


214        BisTnarck  in  tlie  Franco-German  }Yar. 

"Camp  de  Conlie,  Novemher  18,  mi^ught. 

"The  General  commanding  (Keratry)  authorizes  me  to  send 
you  the  following  despatch  :  '  This  was  a  day  never  to  be  for- 
gotten in  the  army  of  Brittany.  A  soldier  who  had  been  con- 
demned to  be  shot  at  two  o'clock  was  pardoned.  He  had  been 
guilty  of  gi'eat  insubordination  to  the  Commandant  of  the 
Camp,  \jreneral  Bonedec.  Since  his  condemnation,  the  army 
chaplain  and  officers  of  the  General  staff  had  interceded  on  his 
behalf.  General  Keratry's  answer  was  that  it  was  out  of  his 
power  to  pass  the  thing  over.  Accordingly  all  the  troops  in 
camp  were  gathered  about  one  o'clock  to-day.  to  be  present  at 
the  execution  of  the  sentence.  About  two,  everything  was  in 
readiness.  The  condemned  man  stood  between  two  field  chap- 
lains, expecting  every  moment  would  be  his  last.  He  had 
shown  considerable  fortitude  the  whole  day,  as  he  knew  that 
there  wais  no  longer  the  faintest  hope  of  pardon.  At  the  ap- 
pointed hour,  the  sentence  was  read  before  all  the  troops.  Then 
came  the  first  rattle  of  the  drum  :  at  the  second  all  would  be 
over.  The  coflin  was  ready,  and  the  grave  dug.  It  was  a 
frighful  moment.  Just  when  the  last  signal  was  to  have  been 
given.  Monsieur  de  Keratry  stepped  forward,  cried  '  Halt !'  and 
in  a  clear  ringing  voice  said  (really  just  as  in  a  genuine  melo- 
drama), 'Officers  and  men  of  the  army  of  Brittany  !  One  of 
our  soldiers  guilty  of  an  act  of  insubordination,  has  been  sen- 
tenced to  death  by  court-martial ;  I  grant  him  sC  free  pardon  ; 
but  in  future  every  ofience  against  discipline  will  be  punished 
without  mercy.  I  hope  that  this  lesson  may  be  sufficient  to 
prevent  any  offence  against  the  Articles  of  War  or  disobedience 
to  the, orders  of  your  officers,  and  that  I  shall  be  rewarded  for 
my  leniency  by  a  discipline  beyond  reproach.  That  justice  may 
be  impartial,  I  remit  all  the  other  sentences  at  present  in  force.' 
This  speech  was  received  with  tremendous  acclamations,  and 
shouts  of  '  Yive  Keratry'  (just  as  in  the  theatre).  The  officers 
of  the  general  stafi  who  had  asked  for  the  man's  pardon,  were 
deeply  touched.  All  the  troops  then  marched  past  the  General 
commanding ;  and  although  ordered  to  mafch  in  silence  they 
kept  shouting  '  Long  live  Keratry  1'  In  the  evening  the  officers 
of  the  general  staff  expressed  their  gratitude  to  the  Count.  His 
gracious  act  has  made  a  deep  impression  on  the  soldiers.  The 
result  will,  I  hope,  be  that  they  will  give  him  a  confidence  never 
to  be  shaken." 


What  might  have  been.  215 

The  ludicrously  theatrical  nature  of  the  people  at  present  in 
authority  in  France  could  not  be  better  illustrated  than  by  the 
publication  of  such  a  document.  The  brave  French  soldiers 
who  have  to  fight  for  the  maintenance  in  power  of  such  stage 
heroes,  are  much  to  be  pitied. 

After  ten  o'clock  the  French  began  another  furious  cannon- 
ade from  their  forts,  with  what  object,  nobody  can  make  out. 
At  tea,  when  the  Chief  was  with  us,  fuller  favorable  accounts 
came  in  of  yesterday's  battle.  We  then  spoke  of  the  delay  of 
the  bombardment — a  subject  commg  every  day  more  promin- 
ently into  the  foreground — and  of  the  Geneva  Convention,  of 
which  the  Chief  remarked  that  we  must  tolerate  the  thing,  but 
that  it  was  nonsense,  and  that  war  could  not  be  carried  on  that 
way.  It  appears  that  Delbriick  has  not  telegraphed  quite  dis- 
tinctly what  are  the  prospects  of  the  arrangements  with  Bavaria 
being  carried  in  the  Reichstag.  It  seems  as  if  the  Reichstag 
could  not  make  up  its  mind  to  decisive  action,  and  the  con- 
vention concluded  at  Versailles  were  to  be  attacked  both  by  the 
Progress  party  and  the  National  Liberals.  The  Chief  said  : 
"As  for  the  Progress  fellows,  they  are  quite  consistent.  They 
wovdd  like  us  back  in  1849.  But  these  National  liberals  !  If 
they  will  not  take  what  at  the  beginning  of  the  year  they 
were  struggling  for  with  all  their  might  and  what  they 
may  now  have  by  putting  out  their  hand,  we  must  dis- 
solve their  Reichstag.  The  Progress  party  would  be 
weakened  by  a  new  election,  and  several  of  the  National 
Liberals  would  not  come  back  either  But  the  conven- 
vention  would  for  the  present  be  torn  to  pieces.  Bavaria  would 
reconsider  her  position  ;  Beust  would  stick  his  finger  in  the  pie, 
and  nobody  knows  what  might  happen.  I  can't  well  go  off 
to  Berlin.  It  is  very  inconvenient,  and  takes  up  a  good  deal 
of  time  when  I  am  really  wanted  here."  In  this  connection  he 
spoke  also  of  the  state  of  mattei*s  in  1848  :  "At  that  time  things 
looked  well  for  a  time  for  a  union  of  Germany  under  Prussia. 
The  little  princes  were  mostly  powerless  and  in  despair.  If 
only  they  could  have  had  a  good  deal  of  property  secured  to 
themselves— domains,  appanages,  &c. — most  of  them  would 
have  willingly  consented  to  everything  else.  The  Austrians  had 
their  hands  fuU  with  Hungary  and  Italy.  The  Emperor  Nicholas 
would,  at  that  time,  have  made  no  protest.  If  before  May, 
1849,  we  had  put  our  backs  into  it,  been  decided,  and  settled 
up  with  the  minor  princes,  we  migtit  have  had  the  south,  for 


216        Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War. 

the  armies  of  Bavaria  and  Wiirtemberg  were  inclined  to  side 
with  the  revolution  in  Baden,  which  at  that  time  was  not  an 
impossibility.  But  time  was  lost  through  delays  and  half 
measures,  and  the  opportunity  was  gone." 

About  eleven  a  telegram  came  in  from  Verdy  about  the  sortie 
this  morning.  It  was  directed  against  La  Haye,  and  about  five 
hundred  red-breeches  were  taken  prisoners.  The  Chief  com- 
plained bitterly  that  they  would  go  on  taking  prisoners,  instead 
of  shooting  them  down  at  once. 

"We  had  more  than  enough  prisoners,"  h«  said,  "already, 
and  the  Parisians  were  relieved  of  so  many  'consumers,'  whom 
we  should  have  to  feed  and  for  whom  we  had  no  room." 

Prince  Putbus  and  Odo  Russell  dined  with  us,  and  the  Prince 
told  us  of  the  only  time  he  had  made  an  attempt  to  speculate 
in  stocks  on  the  strength  of  his  knowledge  of  state  secrets  and  . 
of  the  bad  luck  he  had  had  of  it.  "I  had  been  charged,"  he 
sairj,  "  to  talk  over  the  Neuenburg  (Neufchatel^  business  with 
Napoleon,  in  the  spring  of  1857,  I  believe.  I  was  to  ascertain 
his  attitude,  and  I  knew  that  he  would  express  himself  favor- 
ably, and  that  that  would  point  to  a  war  with  Switzerland. 
On  my  way  through  Frankfort,  where  I  then  resided,  I  went 
accordingly  to  see  Rothschild,  whom  I  knew  personally,  and 
told  him  to  sell  out  a  certain  stock  which  he  held  for  me,  as  it 
would  certainly  not  rise.  '  I  should  not  advise  you  to  do  it,' 
■  said  Rothschild,  '  the  stock  has  good  prospects,  and  you  will  see 
that  soon.'  '  Well,'  said  I,  '  if  you  knew  what  I  know,  you 
would  think  differently.'  However  that  might  be  he  said,  he 
should  not  like  to  advise  selling  out.  Of  course  I  knew  better, 
so  I  sold  my  stock  and  went  off.  In  Paris,  Napoleon  was  quite 
clear  and  very  amiable.  He  could  not  accede  to  the  King's 
wish  to  be  allowed  to  march  through  Elsass  and  Lothringen,  as 
that  would  have  roused  too  much  feeling  in  France.  Other- 
wise he  entirely  approved  of  the  enterprise,  and  it  would  give 
him  nothing  but,.gratification  to  see  that  Democrats'  nest  routed 
out.  So  far  I  had  succeeded  perfectly.  But  I  had  not  calcula- 
ted on  our  own  policy  in  Berlin,  which  had  meanwhile  shifted 
in  another  direction — probably  in  view  of  Austria — so  that  the 
thing  was  given  up  ;  there  was  no  war,  the  stock  kept  steadily 
rising  in  the  market,  and  I  could  only  regret  that  it  was  no 
longer  my  property." 

Then  we  spoke  of  the  bombardment,   of  the  Villa  Coublay, 
and  of  what  seemed  the  impossibility  of  getting  the  necessary 


Ambassadors  and  Ministers.  217 

ammunition  forward  quickly.  The  Chief  said,  *'  I  have  told 
the  gentlemen  twice  over  that  we  have  lots  of  horses,  which 
have  every  day  to  be  exercised  to  keep  them  in  health,  and 
which  might  surely  be  employed  for  once  in  another  way.  ..." 
Somebody  told  us  that  the  Villa  Caffarelli  had  been  pur 
chased  for  our  embassy  in  Rome,  and  Russell  and  Abeken  said 
it  was  a  very  handsome  one.  The  Chancellor  said  "  Yes  indeed, 
and  we  have  some  fine  houses  in  other  places,  as,  for  instance, 
in  Paris  and  London.  But  according  to  our  continental  ideas, 
the  latter  is  too  small.  Bernstorff  has  so  little  space  that  when 
he  receives  or  is  at  work,  or  has  any  grand  affair  on,  he  has  to 
get  his  room  cleared  out  for  it.  His  Secretary  of  Legation  has 
a  better  room  in  the  house  than  Bernstorff"  himself."  The  resi- 
dence of  the  Embassy  in  Paris  is  a  fine  house  very  comfortably 
arranged.  It  is  certainly  the  best  house  any  of  the  Embassies 
have  in  Paris,  and  it  is  worth  so  much  that  I  once  asked  myself 
the  question  whether  I  ought  not  to  dispose  of  it  and  give  tha 
Ambassador  the  interest  of  the  capital  to  pay  his  rent  with. 
The  interest  on  2  i^  million  francs  (,£80,000)  would  be  a  nice 
addition  to  his  income,  which  is  only  100,000  francs  (£4000). 
But  the  more  I  turned  it  over,  the  less  I  liked  it.  It  is  not 
seemly  or  worthy  of  a  great  power,  that  its  ambassadors  should 
have  to  rent  a  house  which  they  might  get  notice  to  quit,  when 
all  the  state  papers  would  have  to  be  trundled  through  the 
streets  in  wheel-barrows  during  the  flitting.  We  must  have 
houses  of  our  own,  and  we  ought  to  have  them  in  every  embassy 
town.  The  house  in  London  is  in  a  very  peculiar  position.  It 
belongs  to  the  King,  and  everything  turns  on  the  energy  witk 
which  the  ambassador  of  the  day  looks  after  his  own  interests. 
It  may   happen — occasionally  it  does  happen — that  the  King 

gets  no  rent  at  all "     The   Chief   praised   Napier,    who 

was  formerly  English  ambassador  in  Berlin.  "  It  was  very 
easy  to  get  on  with  him,"  he  said  ;  "  Buchanan,  too,  was  a  good, 
dry  man,  but  trustworthy.  Now  we  have  Loftus,  The  posi- 
tion of  an  English  ambassador  in  Berlin  raises  curious  questions 
and  involves  special  difiiculti&s  on  account  of  the  relationship 
between  the  two  Royal  Houses.  It  needs  great  tact  and  discre- 
tion (a  quiet  hint  probably  that  Loftus  does  not  answer  these 
demands  and  requirements)."  The  Minister  (perhaps  to  mark 
still  more  clearly  his  opinion  of  the  character '  of  the  then 
representative  of  Her  Britannic  Majesty)  then  turned  the  con- 
versation to  Gramont,  saying  "  He  and  OUivier  always  seem  to 
18 


218        Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War. 

me  the  real  people.  If  such  a  thing  had  happened  in  my  hands, 
after  doing  mischief  like  that,  I  should  at  least  have  enlisted  or 
become  Franc-tireur  on  my  owai  account,  though  I  might  have 
been  hanged  for  it.  That  big  strong  fellow,  Gramont,  is  very  well 
made  for  soldiering.  Russell  said  he  had  once  seen  him  in  Rome 
in  blue  velveteens  at  a  hunting  party.  "Yes,"  said  the  Chief,"  he 
is  a  good  sportsman.  He  has  the  right  build  of  muscles  for  it. 
He  would  have  been  a  capital  head  gamekeeper.  But — Minis- 
ter of  Foreign  Affairs — one  can  hardly  conceive  how  Napoleon 
could  have  appointed  him  to  such  a  position." 

Thursday,  December  1. — This  morning  only  a  couple  of  shots 
were  fired  from  the  forts.  I  telegraphed  that  yesterday's  sortie 
had  led  to  a  desperate  struggle  with  the  Wiirtemberg  Division, 
the  larger  half  of  the  12th,  and  portions  of  the  6th  and  2nd 
Army  Corps,  and  that  the  result  had  been  that  the  enemy  had 
been  repulsed  along  the  whole  line.  The  wounded  had 
declined  to  avail  themselves  of  the  permission  to  return  to  Paris. 
Afterwards  there  was  the  usual  study  of  the  journals  with 
pencil  marking  and  extracts. 

At  breakfast  Abeken  appeared  with  his  !  air  cut.  He  asked 
Bismarck-Bohlen  how  he  looked.  The  answer  was,  "Admir- 
ably, Privy  Councillor,  but  the  lock  on  the  one  side  is  longer 
than  on  the  other."  "  No  matter  for  that,  I  always  wear  it  so. 
But  have  you  really  nothing  else  to  say  against  it]"  "It  is 
quite  perfect,  Privy  Councillor."  The  old  gentleman  went  away 
whistling,  greatly  pleased  with  himself  and  Hatzfeld  watched 
him  as  he  went  out  with  a  wondering  smile. 

At  dinner  we  had  a  First  Lieutenant  von  Saldern  who  was 
present  as  Adjutant  at  the  last  engagements  of  the  10th  Army 
Corps  with  the  Army  of  the  Loire.  According  to  him  this 
Corps  was  for  a  long  time  surrounded  by  a  superior  body  of 
French,  who  were  trying  to  break  through  one  wing  of  our 
troops  towards  Fontainbleau.  They  defended  themselves  for 
seven  hours  agamst  the  enemy's  assaults  with  magnificent 
courage  and  firmness.  The  troops  under  Wedel,  and  above  all 
those  of  the  16th  Regiment,  specially  distinguished  themselves. 
*'  We  made  over  1600  prisoners,  and  the  total  loss  of  the  French 
is  estimated  at  from  4000  to  5000  men,"  said  Saldern.  "  Yes," 
said  the  Chief,  "  but  prisoners  are  now  a  serious  trouble  to  us, 
an  extra  burden"  .  .  ,  When  Saldern  told  us,  in  the  course  of 
liis  narrative,  that  one  of  the  French  soldiers  was  shot  only  ten 
itaces  in  front  of  our  needle-guns,  the  Chief  said,  "  But  he  loas 


Bismarck  and  the  Hospitals,  219_ 

shot."  Afterwards  he  gave  Abeken  his  instructions  for  the 
report  he  was  to  make  for  him  to  the  King,  •'  and  say  to  his 
Majesty,"  said  he  finally,  "  that  if  we  permit  a  Frenchman  to 
appear  in  London  (in  the  Conference  then  being  held  for  the 
revision  of  the  peace  of  1856),  we  are  not  bound  to  do  so,  as 
the  Goverment  has  never  been  recognised  by  the  Powers,  and 
cannot  be  long  in  existence.  We  may  allow  it,  to  gratify 
Russia,  on  this  question  only,  but  if  anything  else  is  brought 
forward,  he  must  leave  the  room." 

The  Chief  then  told  us  the  following  incident :  "  After  being 
with  Roon  to-day,  I  took  a  walk  which  may  have  done  some 
good.  I  went  to  see  Marie  Antoinette's  rooms  in  the  chateau, 
after  which  I  thought  to  myself.  You  should  take  note  how  the 
wounded  are  getting  on.  I  asked  one  of  the  sentinels,  '  What 
do  the  people  get  to  eat  ]  "  '  Well,'  he  said,  '  not  very  much, 
a  little  soup,  meant  for  broth,  with  some  bits  of  bread  and 
pickles  of  rice  in  it,  not  boiled  very  soft,  and  very  little  fat,' 
'  And  about  the  wine,'  I  said,  '  and  do  you  get  beer  1  They  got 
about  half  a  glass  of  wine  a  day.  I  asked  another,  afterwards, 
who  had  got  none  at  all.  A  third  told  me  he  had  had  some 
three  days  ago,  but  none  since.  I  questioned  about  a  dozen, 
including  some  Poles,  who  did  not  understand  me,  and  could 
only  express  their  delight  to  have  anybody  asking  for  them,  by 
.smiling.  Also  the  poor  wounded  soldiers  did  not  get  what  they 
ought,  and  the  rooms  were  cold,  because  they  were  not  allowed 
to  be  heated  for  fear  of  spoiling  the  pictures  on  the  walls.  As 
if  the  life  of  a  single  soldier  were  not  worth  more  than  all  the 
lumber  of  pictures  in  the  chateau.  Then  the  servants  told  me 
that  the  oil  lamps  were  only  allowed  till  eleven,  and  that  after 
that  the  men  had  to  lie  in  the  dark  till  the  morning.  I  had 
previously  talked  with  an  officer  severely  wounded  in  the  foot. 
He  said  he  ought  to  be  satisfied,  though  things  might  be 
managed  better.     People  took  pretty  good  care  of  him,  but  for 

the  reslj .     A  Bavarian  companion  of  St.  John  plucked  up 

heart  and  told  me  that  beer  and  wine  were  given  out,  but  pro- 
bably half  or  more  went  a-missing  somehow,  as  well  as  warm 
things  and  other  gifts  from  friends  at  home.  Then  I  went  off 
to  the  head  doctor.  '  What  about  the  provision  for  sick,'  I 
said  ;  '  do  they  get  proper  things  to  eat  1 '  '  Here  is  the  official 
list  of  returns.'  Don't  show  me  that,'  I  said,  '  people  can't  eat 
apper — do  they  get  their  wine  1 '  '  Half  a  litre  daily.'  Pardon 
me,  the  people  say  that  is  not  so.     I  have  asked  them,  and  it  is 


220        Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War. 

hardly  to  be  supposed  they  are  lying  when  they  say  they  have 
got  none.'  '  Here,  sir,  is  my  proof  that  everything  is  done  pro- 
perly, and  according  to  my  orders.  Come  with  me,  and  I  shall 
ask  them  about  it  before  you.'  '  I  must  excuse  myself,  I  said, 
'  but  they  shall  be  asked  by  the  auditor  whether  they  get  what 
goes  to  the  inspector  for  them.'  *  That  would  be  a  great  reflec- 
tion on  me,'  said  he.  *  Yes,'  said  I,  of  course,  '  but  I  shall  take 
care  that  the  matter  is  inquired  into,  and  at  once.' "  *  He 
went  on  to  say,  "  Frauds  happen  mostly  among  two  classes,  the 
meal-worms,  who  have  to  do  with  the  provisions,  and  the  build- 
ing people,  especially  the  hydraulic  engineers.  Unfortunately, 
too,  there  are  some  among  the  doctors.  Not  long  ago,  perhaps 
a  year  and  a  half  since,  I  remember  that  there  was  a  great 
investigation  into  frauds  in  the  supply  of  the  soldiers,  and  to 
my  astonishment  I  found  that  about  thirty  doctors  were  in- 
volved." Then  he  asked  suddenly,  "  Does  any  of  you  know 
who  is  Niethammer  1  He  must  come  of  a  very  learned  family." 
Somebody  thought  he  was  a  philologian,  another  said  there  was 
a  friend  of  Hegel's  of  that  name,  Keudell  remembered  that 
there  was  a  diplomatist  so-called,  who  had  no  good- will  to  us. 
The  Chief  said  he  must  have  been  in  relation  with  |Harless,  a 
Bavarian  theologian,  who  was  an  enemy  of  ours. 

In  the  evening  Dunker's  interpellation  on  the  imprisonment 
of  Jacoby,  as  it  appeared  in  the  National  Zeihing,  was  prepared 
for  the  King's  reading. 

The  Chancellor  came  in  later,  after  half-past  ten,  when  we 
were  at  tea.  After  a  while  he  said,  "  The  papers  are  not 
pleased  with  the  Bavarian  Convention;  I  expected  as  much. 
They  are  out  of  humor  because  certain  officials,  who  will  have 
to  conduct  themselves  entirely  according  to  our  laws,  are  to  be 
called  Bavarian.  It  is  the  same  thing,  essentially,  with  the 
military  people.  The  beer  tax  is  not  to  their  mind,  as  if  we 
had  not  had  the  same  thing  for  years  in  the  Customs  Union. 
They  would  cavil  in  this  way  over  every  detail  in  the  treaty, 
though  everything  essential  has  been  obtained  and  properly 
secured.  They  are  behaving  as  if  we  had  been  at  war  previously 
with  Bavaria,  as  we  were  with  the  Saxons  in  1866,  instead  of 

*  We  shall  see  afterwards  that  little  more  came  of  this  suspicion,  which 
appearances  abundantly  justified  than  that  some  small  defects  were  dis- 
covered in  the  i>'  division  for  looking  after  the  sick  throughout.  I  have  told 
the  story  as  an  evittence  of  the  Ministeir's  sense  of  justice  and  kindly  feeling 
for  people. 


Bulk  of  the  War  Indetnnity.  ^  221 

the  Bavarians  being  our  allies,  and  fighting  at  our  side.  Rather 
than  see  any  good  in  the  Convention,  they  would  prefer  to  wait 
till  they  could  h?Lve  their  unity  in  a  form  agreeable  to  them- 
selves. They  would  have  to  wait  a  long  while.  Their  course 
leads  to  nothing  but  distraction,  while  the  matter  must  be  set- 
tled at  once.  If  we  put  off,  Time,  the  old  enemy,  will  come  in, 
and  sow  tares  among  our  wheat.  The  Convention  secures  us  a 
great  deal,  and  those  who  want  everything  will  make  it  possible 
that  we  may  get  nothing  whatever.  They  are  not  content  with 
what  is  in  their  hand — they  want  more  uniformity — if  they 
would  only  think  of  five  years  back,  and  what  they  would  then 
have  been  satisfied  with.  ...  A  Constituent  Assembly  !  But 
the  King  of  Bavaria  might  decline  to  allow  one  to  be  elected. 
The  Bavarian  people  would  never  force  his  hand,  and  neither 
should  we.  Yes,  criticism  is  easy  when  people  don't  in  the 
least  realise  the  real  circumstances." 

He  then  turned  to  a  different  subject :  "  I  have  seen  the 
account,"  he  said,  "of  the  surprise  of  the  Unna  Battalion. 
Inhabitants  of  Chatillon  took  part  in  it,  and  others  undoubtedly 
added  to  the  difficulties  of  our  troops.  If  they  had  only  burnt 
down  the  place  in  their  first  rage  !  Afterwards,  in  cold  blood, 
it  is  not  so  easy  to  do." 

A  little  after,  he  took  up  some  gold  pieces,  and  played  with 
them  in  his  hands  for  awhile.  "  It  is  startling,"  he  said,  "  how 
many  well-d reused  people  go  about  begging  here.  It  was  the 
same  in  Rheims,  only  it  is  much  worse  here.  How  seldom  one 
sees  gold  pieces  now  of  Louis  Phillippe's,  or  Charles  the  Tenth's  ! 
I  remember  when  I  was  young,  in  my  twenties,  one  still  saw 
pieces  of  Louis  the  Sixteenth  and  Eighteenth,  the  thick  ones. 
Even  the  name,  Louis  d'or,  has  almost  gone  out,  though  with 
us  it  is  still  the  correct  thing  to  talk  of  Friedrichs  d'or."  He 
balanced  a  gold  Napoleon  on  the  tip  of  his  middle  finger,  as  if 
he  were  weighing  it,  and  went  on  :  "A  hundred  million  double 
Napoleons  would  be  about  the  amount  of  the  war  indemnity 
so  far,  in  gold — it  will  come  to  more  after  a  bit — 4,000  million 
francs.  Forty  thousand  gold  thalers  make  a  hundredweight, 
thirty  hundredweights  are  the  load  for  a  good  two-horse  cart — 
I  know  that  I  once  had  to  take  14,000  gold  thalers  home,  and 
how  heavy  they  were  !  That  would  take  about  eight  hundred 
carts."  "  We  should  get  those  faster  than  the  carts  for  the  ammu- 
nition for  the  bombardment,"  said  somebody,  whose  patience, 
like  that  of  most  of  us,  was  about  worn  out  over  the  putting  off 


222        Blslharck  in  the  Franco-Gennan  War. 

of  the  bombardment.  "  Yes,"  said  the  Chief,"  but  Roon  told  us 
a  few  days  ago,  that  he  has  several  hundred  lerries  at  Nanteuil, 
meant  for  the  transport  of  the  ammunition.  We  might  use  four 
horses  for  awhile,  for  carriages  which  have  now  six,  and  spare 
the  extra  two  for  the  transpoi't  of  ammunition.  We  have 
already  318  cannon,  but  we  want  forty  more,  and  he  might  get 
them  also,  said  Roon.  But  others  won't  hear  of  it."  After- 
wards, Hatzfeld  said ;  "They  have  been  refusing  to  hear  of  it 
for  six  or  seven  weeks  now.  Bronsard  and  Yerdy  said,  so  long 
ago  as  at  Ferrieres,  that  we  could  lay  Forts  Is'sy  and  Yanvres  in 
ruins  in  six-and-thirty  hours,  and  then  advance  on  Paris  itself. 
Yet,  after  all  that,  nothing  is  done."  I  asked  what  Moltke 
thought  about  the  matter.  "  Oh,  he  does  not  trouble  himself," 
said  Hatzfeld  ;  but  Bucher  said,  "  Moltke  wants  the  bombard- 
ment." 

Before  going  to  bed,  I  cast  my  eye  over  our  Monit6ur,  with 
a  whole  column  full  of  names  of  French  officers  who  had  been 
taken  prisoners,  broken  their  parole,  and  got  off  from  the 
places  where  they  had  been  interned.  There  were  captains 
and  lieutenants,  infantry  and  cavaliy,  northern  Frenchmen  and 
southern  Frenchmen.  Two  had  got  away  from  Dresden,  and 
no  fewer  than  ten  from  Hirsch>)erg.  If  we  can  trust  the  re- 
ports in  the  English  and  Belgian"  newspapers,  there  is  little 
enough  already  in  Paris,  of  what  holds  body  and  soul  together  ; 
but  things  are  still  bearable,  at  all  o\ents,  for  well-to-do  people. 
They  have  plenty  of  bread,  dried  vegetables  and  preserved 
meats.  There  is  very  little  fresh  beef,  and  it  is  very  dear. 
Horse  and  do«»key-flosh,  "  both  better  than  they  are  called,"  says 
a  letter,  have  to  serve  for  it  with  most  of  the  Parisians.  The 
rat  is  beginning  to  bo  much  in  request.  Dogs  and  cats  are 
articles  of  luxury,  and  can  no  longer  put  out  their  noses  with 
impunity  on  the  Boulevards  at  night. 

The  stock  of  oil  is  abeut  done,  there  is  no  more  wood  for 
firing,  and  the  supplies  of  coal  are  running  low.  About  the 
middle  of  November  a  pound  of  butter  cost  twenty-five  to 
twenty-six  francs,  a  goose  thirty-five,  a  pound  of  horse-flesh 
three  to  four  francs,  and  fresh  vegetables  and  milk  were  no 
longer  within  the  reach  of  people  of  moderate  means. 

Friday,  Deceinber  2. — Alten,  Lehndorff,  and  an  officer  in 
dragoon  uniform  were  the  Chief's  guests  at  dinner.  The  officer 
was  a  Herr  von  Thadden,  a  son  of  Thadden-Treglaff.  The 
Chief  said  that  after  coming  back  from  a  carriage  round  he  had 


Two  Love  Gifts.  223 

just  been  looking  to  the  better  quartering  of  our  soldiers  on 
guard.  "  Up  to  to  this  time  the  fellows  have  been  billeted," 
he  said,  "  in  Madame  Jesse's  coach-yard,  where  they  can  get  no 
fire.  I  could  not  allow  that  any  longer,  and  ordered  the  gard- 
ener to  clear  out  the  half  of  the  hothouse  for  them.  '  But 
madame's  plants  will  be  frozen,'  said  the  gardener's  wife.  '  It 
is  a  pity,'  I  said,  '  but  it  is  better  than  that  the  soldiers  should 
be.' "  He  then  spoke  of  the  danger  that  the  Reichstag  might 
disallow,  or  at  least  modify,  the  convention  with  Bavaria.  "  I 
am  most  anxious  about  it,"  said  he.  "  These  people  have  no 
idea  of  the  real  situation.  We  are  standing  on  the  point  of  a 
lightning  conductor  ;  if  we  lose  our  balance,  after  I  have  had 
the  greatest  difficulty  in  getting  it,  we  tumble  to  the  bottom. 
They  want  more  than  what  was  got  without  using  any  pressure, 
and  what  they  would  have  been  delighted  with,  or  with  the 
half  of  it,  in  1866.  They  want  amendments,  they  want  to  put 
in  more  unity  and  uniformity.  If  they  alter  ia  single  comma, 
we  shall  have  the  negotiations  all  over  again.  Where  are  they 
to  be  held  1  Here  in  Versailles  ?  And  if  we  are  not  finished 
by  the  1st  of  January,  which  would  be  delightful  to  many  in 
Munich,  the  unity  of  Germany  is  done  for,  perhaps  for  years, 
and  the  Austrians  can  do  what  they  like  in  Munich." 

The  first  dish  after  the  soup  was  mushrooms,  served  up  in 
two  different  ways.  "  You  must  eat  these  with  much  feeling," 
he  said  :  "  they  are  a  love-gift  from  the  soldiers,  who  found 
them  in  some  quarry  or  cellar,  where  a  crop  of  mushrooms  is 
being  raised.  The  cook  has  fitted  with  them  a  capital  sauce, 
first-rate  !  Even  a  better  love-gift,  certainly  a  more  ui^usual 
one,  was  sent  me  by  the  soldiers :  what  regiment  was  it  that 
sent  me  the  roses  %"  "  The  47th,"  said  Bohlen.  "  Yes,  that 
bouquet  of  roses  Avas  gathered  under  fire,  probably  in  the  garden 
of  the  outpost  circle.  By  the  bye,  that  reminds  me  that  in  the 
hospital  I  came  across  a  Polish  soldier,  who  could  read  no  Ger- 
man. A  Polish  prayerbook  would  be  a  comfort  to  him  ;  has 
anybody  such  a  thing'?"  Alten  said  no,  but  he  could  supply 
him  with  some  Polish  newspapers.  The  Chief  replied  :  "  No 
good  ;  he  would  not  understand  them,  and  they  Avould  put 
him  up  against  us.  Perhaps  Radziwill  has  something.  A  Polish 
novel,  '  Pan  Twardowski,'  or  something  of  that  sort,  might  do." 
Alten  said  he  would  make  a  note  of  it. 

The  conversation  then  turned  on  to-day's  sortie,  as  twice 
over  we  heard  the  thunder  from  the  Seine.     Somebody  said, 


224        Bisinarcfc  in  the  Franco-German  War. 

"  The  poor  Wiirtemberg  fellows  have  no  doubt  lost  a  great 
many  men  this  time,too."  "  Most  likely  the  poor  Saxons  also," 
said  the  Chief.  Somebody  mentioned  Ducrot,  who  was  prob- 
ably in  command  of  the  sortie,  and  said  he  ought  to  take  care 
not  to  get  taken  prisoner.  "  Certainly,"  said  the  Minister, 
"  he  should  either  get  killed  in  battle,  or  if  he  has  no  mind  for 
that  he  should  take  himself  off  in  a  balloon."  .  .  .  The  Chief 
looked  round  :  "  Where  is  Krausnik  ]  He  has  surely  not  for- 
gotten to  bring  the  apple-poultice  for  the  soldier  which  I  prom- 
is«jd  him.  He  was  wounded  only  in  the  arm,  but  he  looked  a 
miserable  object,  and  had  fever — suppuration,  I  am  afi-aid.  ' 

We  began  to  talk  of  speculation  in  stocks,  and  the  Minister 
again  repeated  that  very  little  could  be  made  out  of  it,  through 
the  possession  of  which  must  always  give  one  a  very  restricted 
forecast  of  political  events.  Such  things  only  produce  their 
effects  on  the  exchange  a  little  later,  and  nobody  can  guess  on 
what  day  the  effect  will  begin.  "  Yes,"  he  went  on,  "  and  if 
one  could  procure  a  fall  of  stocks  by  intrigues  of  that  sort,  it 
would  be  a  disgraceful  affair.  The  French  Minister  G.  did  so, 
as  R.  recently  told  us.  He  doubled  his  capital  by  it — it  might 
almost  be  said  that  the  war  was  promoted  with  that  object.  M., 
too,  as  they  say  tried  the  same  business — not  on  his  own  ac- 
count, but  ^vith  the  money  of  his  mistress — and  when  it  was 
likely  to  turn  out  well,  he  died  under  suspicious  circumstances. 
A  man  who  wants  to  make  use  of  his  position  will  arrange  to 
have  the  Bourse  telegrams  for  all  the  Exchanges  sent  on  along 
with  the  political  despatches  to  suitable  officials  at  the  various 
legations.  Political  telegrams  have  precedence,  and  twenty  or 
thirty  minutes  might  be  gained  that  way.  Then  you  must  have 
a  Jew  who  can  run  fast,  to  take  propev  advantage  of  the  extra 
time.  There  are  people,  doubtless,  who  have  done  it.  In  this 
way  one  might  earn  his  500  or  5,000  thalers  daily,  which  in  a 
couple  of  years  would  come  to  a  good  deal  of  money.  My  son 
shall  never  say  that  his  father  made  him  a  rich  man  in  any  such 
fashion.  He  may  get  rich  some  other  way,  if  he  wants.  I 
was  better  off  before  I  was  Chancellor  of  the  Confederation 
than  I  am  now.  I  was  ruined  by  the  Dotation.  Since  that 
time  I  have  been  a  man  in  difficulties,  I  considered  myself 
before  as  a  simple  country  squire,  but  after  I  came  to  belong 
in  a  sort  of  way  to  the  peerage,  the  demands  on  me  have  in- 
creased, and  my  estates  don't  bring  it  in.  The  time  when  I 
always  had  something  to  the  good  was  when  I  was  ambassador 


Heavy  Cannonading.  225 

at  Frankfort,  and  in  St.  Petersburg,  when  I  needed  to  keep  no 
company  and  kept  none."  Then  he  told  us  of  his  ground-fir 
and  wood  pulp  concerns  in  Yarzin,  out  of  which  he  seemed  to 
expect  to  make  a  good  deal.  His  tenant  paid  him  interest  on 
the  capital  which  he  had  sunk  in  the  mills  and  other  plant. 
"  How  much  might  it  be  1"  said  somebody.  "  Forty  to  fifty 
thousand  thalers.  He  pays  me  2,000  thalers,"  he  added,  "  for 
a  water-power,  which  was  of  no  use  before  ;  he  buys  my  pine 
logs  which  I  could  hardly  sell  previously,  and  after  thirty  years 
he  is  to  hand  me  back  the  whole  of  the  mills  in  the  condition 
in  which  he  received  them.  At  present  there  is  only  one,  but 
there  will  soon  be  another  where  the  water  falls  with  gi'eater 
force,  and  afterwards  a  third."  "  And  what  may  your  tenant 
make  of  it?"  "Pasteboard  for  book-covers,  paper  for  packing 
and  for  making  boxes  and  so  on,  especially  for  Berlin,  and  cakes 
of  ground-pine  flour  which  are  sent  to  England,  dissolved 
there,  mixed  up  with  other  stuffs,  and  turned  into  paper."  All 
this  he  explained  to  us  in  detail,  as  knowing  all  about  the 
processes. 

Saturday,  December  3. — During  the  night  there  was  heavy 
firing  again  in  the  north,  but,  in  the  course  of  the  day,  only 
single  shots  came  from  the  big  guns.  Yesterday  there  must 
have  been  severe  fighting  on  the  east  and  north-east  of  Paris, 
with  heavy  losses  on  our  side  too.  Apparently  the  French  had 
established  their  footing  at  night  in  the  villages  of  Brie,  Yil- 
liers,  and  Champigny,  which  were  included  Avithin  our  lines.  I 
forward  by  telegraph  to  Germany  a  communication  from  the 
General  Staff  about  these  events,  which  leaves  the  continued 
occupation  of  these  positions  by  our  troops  ambiguous,  speaks 
only  of  the  repulse  of  the  French,  who  bui'st  out  in  heavy 
masses,  by  the  Saxons  (who  seem  to  have  lost  a  whole  battalion), 
the  Wiirtemberg  troops,  and  the  2nd  Army  Corps,  and  goes  on 
to  describe  a  victory  at  Longwy  and  at  Artenay.  At  half-past 
one  the  Chief  goes  to  \Tlsit  the  Grand  Duke  of  Baden,  whose 
wife's  birthday  it  is,  and  afterwards  dines  with  the  King.  We 
have  Count  Holnstein  with  us,  who  went  off  last  Saturday 
night  to  see  the  King  of  Baden  at  Hohenschwang9,u  and  got 
back  here  at  midday  to-day  "  A  journey  that  can  never  be 
forgotten,"  said  Bohlen  to  him.  I  asked  Bucher  about  it. 
*'  The  Count  was  absent  while  the  Emperor  question  was  going 
on,  and  he  brings  back  good  news,"  he  answered.  We  were 
struck  to-day  by  the  French  filing  four  cannon-shots  some  six 


226        Bismarcic  m  the  Franco-German  War. 

times  in  the  course  of  the  day,  two  at  intervals  of  about  four 
seconds,  and  two  almost  simultaneously. 

The  Gaulois,  which  has  emigrated  from  Paris  to  Brussels, 
seems  an  accurate  sort  of  print.  Its  editors,  one  of  whom  was 
that  amiable  person,  Angelo  de  Miranda,  go  on  as  if  they  were 
still  writing  in  Paris,  shut  off  from  all  the  world.  For  example, 
these  children  of  the  father  of  lies  tell  us,  that  about  the  mid- 
dle of  October  Prussia  paid  450,000  thalers  (£67,500),  through 
a  London  house,  to  certain  people  living  in  France,  on  which 
account  these  people  are  supposed  to  be  Prussian  spies.  They 
say  that  Moltke  died  and  was  buried  three  weeks  since,  but 
that  any  German  soldier  who  mentions  the  fact  is  at  once  shot. 
To  get  out  of  the  way  of  the  serious  business  which  there  is 
likely  soon  to  be  about  Paris,  King  William  has  it  seems,  (aken 
himself  off  to  Germany,  probably  to  open  the  Reichstag. 
Lastly  thirty-six  heads  of  families  at  Mutzig,  near  Strass- 
burg,  whose  sons  are  with  the  French  afmy,  have  been 
put  to  death,  their  ears  and  noses  cut  off,  and  their  corpses 
fastened  on  the  church  walls,  where  they  have  been  for  a  month 
past.  In  other  respects  the  chief  editor,  Tarbe,  is  not  at  all 
bad.  He  attacks  Gambetta,  whom  he  calls  a  tyrant,  and  whom 
he  charges  particularly  with  acting  in  the  interest  only  of  the 
republic,  not  of  France,  the  republic  meaning  nothing  but  his 
own  dictatorship  and  absolute  sovereignty  ;  and  with  sacrificing 
his  country  to  secure  his  own  power.  In  Paris  Tarbe  appears 
not  to  have  been  in  a  position  to  express  these  views  with  suf- 
ficient distinctness.  So  he  left  Paris,  and  tried  to  slip  through 
the  German  lines  with  three  of  his  sub-editors.  He  succeeded, 
but  he  could  not  start  his  paper  again  in  anj  of  the  French 
provincial  towns,  as  he  might  not  have  been  allowed  to  attack 
Gambetta  even  there.  So  he  is  going  to  fight  and  lie  from 
Belgium.  Notes  about  this  mendacious  print  were  communi- 
cated to  the  Moniteur  and  the  German  papers. 

Sunday,  December  4- — The  Barvarian  ex-minister  Von  Eog- 
genbach,  first  lieutenant  Von  Sarwadsky,  and  the  Bavarian 
companion  of  St.  John,  von  Niethaminer,  a  man  with  an  un- 
commonly noble  countenance,  whose  acquaintance  the  Prince 
made  recently  in  the  hospital,  were  at  dinner.  The  Minister 
first  mentioned  that  he  had  again  been  visiting  the  wounded  in 
the  chateau.  Then  he  said,  "  Frankfort  and  Petersburg  ex- 
cepted, I  have  never  been  as  long  in  any  strange  place  as  I 
have  been  here.     We  shall  certainly  spend  our  Christmas  here. 


Possible  Difficulties  in  negotiating  Peace.      227 

and  a  little  ago  we  did  not  expect  that.  At  Easter  we  may  be 
still  in  Versailles  seeing  the  trees  once  more  growing  green, 
and  keeping  our  ears  always  open  for  news  of  the  army  of  the 
Loire.  If  we  had  known,  we  should  have  had  asparagus  beds 
in  the  garden  out  there."  Aft-erwards,  turning  to  Roggenbach, 
he  said,  "  I  have  seen  the  extracts  from  the  newspapers.  How 
they  are  wrestling  over  the  Convention  !  They  don't  leave 
one  good  hair  on  its  head.  The  National  Zeiiung,  the  Koln- 
iscJie,  the  Weser  Zeitung,  which  is  as  it  always  is,  the  most 
rational  of  all.  Well,  criticism  must  please  itself.  But  I  am 
responsible  if  nothing  comes  of  it  all,  and  the  critics  are  not. 
It  is  all  one  what  they  say  against  me  if  the  thing  can  only  be 
put  through  in  the  Reichstag  ;  history  may  say,  if  it  pleases, 
that  that  poor  creature  of  a  Chancellor  ought  to  have  made 
something  much  better  out  of  it,  but  then  I  was  responsible. 
If  the  Reichstag  amends  it,  every  South  German  country  diet 
may  do  the  same,  and  a  peace  such  as  we  want,  and  need,  is 
done  for.  Elsass  cannot  be  claimed  from  France,  unless  a 
political  personality  has  been  meanwhile  created,  and  there  is  a 
Germany  to  recover  it  for." 

We  spoke  of  the  peace  negotiations  which  would  likely 
spring  out  of  the  soon-expected  capitulation  of  Paris,  and  of 
the  difficulties  that  might  ensue.  "  Favre  and  Trochu,"  the 
Chief  began,  "  may  say,"  '  We  are  no  longer  the  Government  ; 
we  once  were,  but  we  have  resigned  and  are  merely  private 
individuals — I  am  only  Citizen  Trochu.'  I  should  soon  bring 
the  Parisians  to  their  senses.  I  should  say.  You  two  millions 
of  people  are  answerable  to  me  with  your  lives.  I  shall  leave 
you  to  starve  for  four-and-twenty  hours  till  we  get  what  we 
want  out  of  you.  And  twenty-four  hours  on  the  top  of  that, 
for  what  happens  is  all  one  to  me.  The  delay  will  do  rne  no 
harm,  but  ...  I  could  manage  well  enough  with  myself,  but 
there  is  something  standing  behind  me,  behind  my  back,  or 
rathher  lying  on  my  chest,  so  that  I  cannot  breathe.  .  .  Ah ! 
if  I  were  squire,  I  could  answer  for  my  own  hardheartedness  ; 
but  I  am  not  squire.  Within  the  last  few  days  something  very 
foolish  has  come  up  through  sentimental  feeling  for  the  people 
inside.  Great  magazines  of  provisions  are  to  be  prepared  for 
the  Parisians.  They  are  to  be  brought  over  from  London  and 
Belgium,  the  magazines  are  to  be  between  our  lines,  and  our 
soldiers  are  only  to  look  on,  and  not  to  help  themselves  out  of 
them  when  they  are  in  want.     It  is  to  save  the  Parisians  from 


228        Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War. 

starving  after  the  capitulation."  "We  have  certainly  enough 
in  th3  house  here,  but  the  troops  outside  are  often  hard  to  put 
to  it,  and  they  are  suffering  that  the  Parisians  may  be  able, 
when  they  know  they  are  looked  after  outside,  to  put  the  cap- 
itulation off  till  they  have  really  swallowed  their  last  loaf  and 
slaughtered  their  last  horse.  I  am  not  asked  about  it,  else  I 
should  be  hanged  rather  than  give  my  consent."  "  But  I  have 
myself  to  blame  ;  I  was  imprudent  enough  to  invite  people's 
attention,  only  the  diplomatic  world's  to  be  sure,  to  famine  as 
inevitable."  (I  had  also  had  to  do  the  same  in  the  news- 
papers.) 

Swiss  cheese  was  handed  round,  and  somebody  asked  whether 
cheese  went  well  with  wine.  "  Some  kinds  of  cheese  with 
some  sorts  of  wine,"  said  the  Minister  ;  "  high-flavored 
cheeses  like  Gorgonzola  or  Dutch,  don't  suit.  Others  suit  well. 
When  people  used  to  drink  hard  in  Pomerania,  some  two  cen- 
turies or  so  since,  the  Rammin  folk  were  the  hardest  drinkers. 
One  Stettm  man  had  once  got  ^vine  which  did  not  taste  right 
to  him,  and  he  wrote  to  the  wine  merchant  about  it.  The 
answer  he  got  back  was,  *  Eet  Kees  to  Wien,  Herr  von  Ram- 
min, denn  smekt  de  Wien  wie  in^tettin  ook  to  Rammin.' 
('  Take  cheese  to  your  wine,  like  a  Kammin  man,  for  the  wine 
tastes  the  same  in  Stettin  as  in  Rammin.')" 

I  went  down  to  tea  after  half-past  ten.  Bismarck-Bohlen 
and  Hatzfeld  were  sitting  there  with  three  sharp-shooters,  who 
were  waiting  for  the  orders  of  the  Chief.  It  was  half  an  hour 
later  before  he  came  back  from  the  Grand  Duke  of  Baden's. 
He  wrote  rapidly  a  letter  in  pencil  to  the  general  commanding 
the  Fourth  Army  Corps,  which  one  of  the  sharp-shooters  took 
away  with  him.  Then  he  told  us  how  the  Grand  Duke  had  jiist 
had  the  news  from  the  King  that  our  people  were  now  in  pos- 
session of  the  Forest  of  Orleans  and  close  up  to  the  town. 
After  the  others  and  the  sharp-shooters  had  left,  I  asked, 
*'  Your  Excellency,  should  I  telegraph  the  good  news  straight 
off  to  London  1 "  "  Yes,"  he  said,  smiling,  "  if  the  general 
staff  will  allow  us  to  say  anything  about  the  movements  of  the 
army."  He  then  read  Renter's  telegram  with  accounts  from 
the  French  side.  He  stopped  at  the  word  "  tarde,"  which  was 
probably  a  mistake  in  writing  out,  saying,  "  A  Saxon  must 
have  telegraphed  this."  Then,  with  a  look  at  me,  '*  I  beg  your 
pardon." 

The  gentlemen  came  in  with  Abeken  who  had  had  the  hon- 


Victories  at  Orleans  and  Amiens.  22jI 

or  to  drink  tea  with  the  King.  We  spoke  of  Gortchakoflfs 
note,  of  England,  of  Count  Holnstein's  journey  and  its  happy- 
results,  of  his  audience  by  King  William.  Bohlen  said,  "They 
are  quite  beside  themselves  in  Germany,  It  will  be  a  splendid 
spectacle  to-morrow  ^vith  their  Emperor.  They  will  illumin- 
ate ;  they  are  already  making  preprarations  for  a  feast  of 
dazzling  magnificence."  "  Well,"  said  the  Chief,  "  it  may  have, 
I  fancy,  a  good  effect  on  the  Reichstag.  It  was  very  good  of 
Eoggenbach  to  be  ready  to  go  off  to  Berlin  at  once  "  (to  preach 
reason  to  those  of  the  members  of  parliament  who  were  dis- 
satisfied). 

Monday,  December  5. — Charming  weather,  but  this  morn- 
ing very  cold.  While  he  was  still  in  bed  the  Chief  had  a  writ- 
ten I'eport  from  Bonsart,  that  the  Tliird  and  Ninth  Army 
Corps  under  Prince  Frederick  Charles  had  had  a  gi'eat  A-ictory, 
that  the  i-ailway  station  and  one  of  the  suburbs  of  Orleans  had 
been  taken  by  Mannstein  ;  that  the  Grand  Duke  of  Mecklen- 
burg had  appeared  in  the  west  of  the  town*;  that  over  thirty 
cannon  and  several  thousand  prisoners  had  fallen  into  our 
hands.  All  sorts  of  war  material,  including  nine  cannon,  had 
also  been  captured  by  our  troops  at  Amiens,  after  a  %-ictory 
there.  Finally,  here,  before  Paris,  the  French  had  been  driven 
back  beliind  the  Marne.  I  telegraph  this  in  our  usual  fashion, 
and  this  time  the  Minister  had  no  fault  to  find  ■with  my  long 
de.spatch. 

Soon  after  he  called  me  back,  and  I  wrote  out  a  polemical 
article  on  the  Bavarian  affair,  in  which  the  ideas  I  had  put  for- 
ward hitherto  were  somewhat  differently  given. 

The  Royal  messenger  Bamberger  sat  at  dinner  on  the  Chiefs 
left.  He  M'as  thinking  of  starting  for  Berlin  to  persuade  peo- 
ple to  accept  the  conventions  with  South  Germany  without  al- 
teration. Besides  him,  the  Minister  had  as  his  guests  a  dra- 
goon officer  with  a  yellow  collar,  Colonel  von  Schenk,  and  a 
lieutenant  or  captain  of  the  light-blue  hussars.  The  latter,  a 
grey-headed  gentleman  with  moustaches,  was  the  von  Rochow 
who  killed  Hinkeldey  in  a  duel.  The  conversation  first  turned 
on  doctors,  and  their  knoAvledge  of  things,  and  the  Chief  thought 
very  little  of  them.  Then  we  talked  of  the  conventions,  and 
somebody  said  that  the  attitude  of  the  princes  in  the  matter 
had  been  right.  "  Yes,  but  the  attitude  of  the  Reichstag,"  in- 
terrupted the  Chancellor,  "I  can  think  of  nothing  but,  gentle- 
men,  gentlemen,  you  are  spoiling  the  whole  of  our  fowling. 


230        Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  V  ir. 

You  remember  Kaiser  Heinrich.  But  it  turned  out  -well  there 
in  the  end.  Well,  if  this  fails,  man  after  man  of  them  might 
offer  himself  to  be  shot  dead  on  the  altar  of  his  country,  but  it 
would  be  of  no  use  to  anybody."  Then  he  thought  a  moment, 
and  went  on  with  a  half  smile,  "  People  should  make  members 
of  Parliament  as  responsible  as  ministers,  no  more  and  no  less, 
on  a  footing  of  perfect  equality.  There  might  be  a  law  that 
they  could  be  put  on  trial  for  high  treason,  for  obstructing  im- 
j)ortant  State  agreements,  or,  as  they  have  done  in  Paris  here, 
for  approving  a  war  made  without  just  cause,  and  in  lightness 
of  heart  (they  were  all  for  it,  except  Jules  Fa\T.'e).  Some  day, 
perhaps,  I  shall  introduce  such  a  law." 

We  spoke  again  of  the  delay  in  the  capitulation  of  Paris, 
which  was  to  have  taken  place  in  four  weeks  at  latest.  "  Yes," 
sighed  the  Chancellor,  "if  it  would  only  come  to  that,  all  my 
troubles  would  be  over."  Bamberger  suggested,  "I  suppose  we 
shall  not  allow  them  merely  to  capitulate  ;  we  shall  require  them 
to  make  peace  witlf  us?"  "  Quite  so,  "  said  the  Chief,  "  that  is 
my  view,  too,  and  we  must  force  them  to  it  by  starving  them. 
But  there  are  people  here  who  want  to  be  praised  for  their  hu- 
manity above  everything  and  who  spoil  everything  with  it ; 
besides  which,  our  first  duty  of  humanity  is  to  think  of  our  own 
soldiers,  and  see  that  they  don't  suffer  needless  misery,  and  are 

not  killed  for  nothing."  " 's  view  of  the  bombardment  is 

just  the  same.  Then  they  spare  the  potato-grubbers,  who  ought 
to  be  shot,  of  course,  if  we  want  to  force  the  city  to  submit  by 
starvation." 

After  eight  o'clock  I  was  repeatedly  called  for  by  the  Chief, 
And  wrote  two  longish  articles.  The  second  was  founded  on  a 
note  in  the  Independance  Beige,  and  pointed  out  that  there  was 
nothing  in  the  circumstance  that  the  House  of  Orleans  was 
connected  with  that  of  Habsburg  Lothringen  through  the  Duc- 
d'Alenocn,  to  make  us  Germans  inclined  to  give  it  any  prefer- 
ence, or  to  regard  it  at  all  more  favorably. 

While  we  were  drinking  tea,  and  after  Bucher  and  Keudell 
And  I  had  been  sitting  awhile  together,  the  Chief  came  in,  and 
Hatzfeld  afterwards.  The  latter  had  been  with  the  King,  and 
told  us  that  he  had  learned  that  in  the  battle  near  Orleans,  and 
•during  the  pursuit  which  followed,  Prince  Frederick  Charles 
had  captured  seventy-seven  guns,  several  mitrailleuses,  and  four 
■gun-boats.  Some  10,000  un wounded  prisoners  fell  into  our 
hands.     The  enemy's  troops  dispersed  in  different  directions. 


Aleaxinder  von  Humboldt.  231 

All  the  important  points  were  taken  by  storm,  and  we  suffered 
considerable  losses  in  consequence,  the  36th,  for  instance,  hav- 
ing lost  a  gi'eat  many,  it  is  beiieved  as  many  as  600  men.  In 
the  last  battle  before  Paris,  also,  we  lost  heavily,  in  consequence 
of  the  overwhelming  numbers  of  the  enemy.  You  may  ima- 
gine, Hatzfeld  went  on  to  say,  that  we  did  not  have  a  very 
lively  time  at  the  King's.  "  The  Russian  state  conncillor, 
Grimm,  told  us  all  sorts  of  feebly  interesting  things  about 
Louis  XIV.  and  Louis  XV.  The  Weimar  man  proposed  a 
riddle  to  which  nobody  could  give  the  correct-  answer."  "  Rado- 
witz  was  a  great  man  in  finding  out  these  things,"  said  the 
]Minister.  ''  He  used  to  give  his  solution  of  every  possible 
thing  with  the  utmost  confidence,  and  that  was  the  way  in 
which  he  won  most  of  his  successes  at  Court.  He  could  tell  us 
exactly  what  la  Maintenon  or  la  Pompadour  wore  on  such  and 
such  a  day.  She  had  this  or  that  round  her  throat,  her  head- 
dress was  ornamented  with  humming-bii'ds,  or  bunches  of  grapes; 
she  wore  a  pearl-green  or  a  parrot-green  dress  with  such  or  such 
flounces  and  laces — all  quite  as  well  as  if  he  had  been  there 
himself.  The  ladies  were  all  ears  for  this  toilette  lecture,  which 
came  trippingly  from  his  tongue." 

The  conversation  turned  afterwards  on  Alexander  von  Hum- 
boldt, who,  if  we  can  trust  to  what  was  said  about  him,  must 
have  been  a  courtier  not  at  all  of  the  entertaining  kind.  "  In 
the  time  of  his  late  Majesty,"  the  Chief  told  us,  "  I  was  the  on- 
ly victim  when  HumV)oldt  used  of  an  evening  to  entertain  the 
company  in  his  own  fashion.  He  used  to  read  aloud  to  us — 
often  for  an  hour  at  a  time-  -a  biographical  account  of  some 
French  scholar  or  architect  in  whom  nobody  but  himself  took 
any  interest.  There  he  stood,  holding  his  paper  close  up  to  the 
lamp.  Occasionally  he  let  his  hands  drop,  to  interpose  some 
learned  expansion  of  what  he  had  been  saying.  Nobody  listen- 
ed to  him,  but  he  kept  on  without  a  pause.  The  Queen  work- 
ed steadily  at  some  tapestry  work,  and  certainly  did  not  hear  a 
word  of  his  discourse.  The  King'looked  over  pictures — cop- 
per-plates and  wood-cuts — making  a  good  deal  of  rustli;  >g  in  turn- 
ing them  over,  with  the  quiet  pui-pose  apparently  of  prevent- 
ing himself  having  to  listen  to  anything  that  was  being  said. 
The  young  folks  kept  at  the  side  and  in  the  15kckground,  talking 
quite  unrestrainedly,  tittering,  and  occasionally  overpowering 
the  voice  of  the  lecturer,  who  went  rippling  on  all  the  same  for 
-ever  like  the  brook.     Gerlach,  who  was  usually  present,  sat  on 


232         Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War. 

a  little  round  stool,  over  the  edge  of  which  his  portly  person 
overflowed  on  all  sides,  and  he  slept  and  snored  so  loud  that 
the  King  once  wakened  him  up,  saying,  '  Gerlach,  don't  snore 
so  any  longer.'  I  was  his  only  patient  audience,  for  I  kept 
quiet,  as  if  I  were  listening  to  the  discourse,  while  I  was  think- 
ing of  other  things.  At  last,  we  had  in  the  cold  meat  and  the 
white  wine."  "It  vexexl  the  old  gentleman  very  much  when 
he  could  not  get  speaking.  I  remember  once  that  somebody 
present  took  up  all  the  conversation,  quite  naturally,  as  he  was 
telling  us  in  a  chai-ming  way  about  things  that  interested  us  all. 
Humboldt  was  beside  himself.  He  moodily  heaped  on  his 
plate — so  high,"  (showing  us  with  his  hand)  "pate  de  foie  gras, 
fat  eels,  lobster  claws,  and  other  indigestibles — a  regular 
mountain  of  them — it  was  marvellous  what  that  old  man 
could  eat.  When  he  was  able  for  no  more,  he  began  to  be  rest- 
less again,  and  made  one  more  attempt  to  run  away  with  the 
conversation.  '  On  the  peak  af  Popocatepetl,'  he  began,  but  it 
was  no  use,  the  story-teller  was  not  to  be  put  down.  '  On  the 
summit  of  Popocatepetl,  14,000  yards  above  the  level  of  the 
sea,'  he  repeated,  in  a  loud,  excited  voice.  It  was  still  no  use; 
the  story-teller  went  on  just  the  same,  and  the  company  gave 
their  attention  to  him  alone.  It  was  unheard  of — an  outrage ! 
Humboldt  sat  down  storming,  and  fell  a-musing  sadly  on  the 
ingratitude  of  mankind,  even  at  Court." 

"The  Liberals  made  a  great  deal  of  him,  and  counted  him 
one  of  themselves.  But  the  breath  of  his  nostrils  was  the 
favor  of  princes,  and  he  never  felt  himself  comfortable  except 
in  the  sunshine  of  royalty.  That  did  not  prevent  him  from 
gossiping  about  the  Court  afterwards  with  Yamhagen,  and 
telling  all  sorts  of  evil  stories  about  it.  Varnhagen  made  books 
of  them,  which  I  bought  like  other  people.  They  are  frightfully 
dear  when  one  thinks  of  the  dozen  lines  in  big  type  that  sprawl 
over- a  page.  Keudell  said  he  supposed,  however,  that  for  his- 
tory they  were  indispensable.  "Yes,"  said  the  Chief,  "in 
a  certain  sense  they  are.  There  are  points  on  which  they  are 
not  worth  much,  but  as  a  whole  they  express  the  acrid  tone  of 
Berlin  society  at  a  time  when  there  was  no  good  in  it.  Every- 
body about  that  time  used  to  talk  with  the  same  malicious  im- 
potence." "WitJft)ut  such  books,  it  would  be  quite  impossible 
for  one  nowadays  to  have  the  least  conception  of  the  kind  of 
world  it  was  unless  one  had  seen  it.  Plenty  of  appar- 
ent, but  no  real  good-breeding.     I  can  remember,  though  I 


Molike  and  Trochu.  233 

was  then  but  a  little  fellow  (it  must  have  been  in  the  year  1821 
or  1822),  the  Ministers  of  the  day  were  frightful  creatures, 
much  stared  at,  and  full  of  a  mysterious  importance.  There 
happened  to  be  a  great  gathering  at  Schuckmann's,  what  was 
called  at  that  time  an  'Assembly.'  What  a  frightful  creature 
of  a  Minister  that  man  was  !  My  mother  went  to  it.  I  can 
remember  her  as  if  it  were  yesterday.  She  had  long  gloves  on, 
up  to  here"  (pointing  up  past  his  elbow),  "a  short- waisted  gown, 
her  curls  done  up  in  pads  at  both  sides,  and  a  big  ostrich 
feather  on  her  head."  Whether  or  not  he  had  meant  to  tell  up 
some  story,  he  broke  off  here  and  went  back  to  Humboldt. 
"  Humboldt,"  he  said,  "had  really  much  to  tell  one  that  was 
worth  listening  to,  when  ons  was  alone  with  him — about  the 
time  of  Frederick  William  III. — and  especially  about  his  own 
first  residence  in  Paris.  He  had  a  kindness  for  me  as  I  was 
always  so  respectful  a  listener,  and  I  got  a  great  many  good 
anecdotes  from  him.  It  was  just  the  same  with  old  Metter- 
nich.  I  spent  a  couple  of  days  with  him  once  on  the  Johannis- 
berg.  Thun  said^to  me,  some  time  after,  'I  don't  know  what 
glamor  you  have  been  casting  over  the  old  prince,  who  has 
been  looking  down  into  you  as  if  you  were  a  golden  goblet,  and 
who  told  me  that  he  had  no  insight  at  all,  if  you  and  I  did  not 
get  on  well  together.'  'Well,'  said  I,. '  I  will  tell  you  ;  I  listen- 
ed peaceably  to  all  his  stories,  only  pushing  the  clock  several 
times  till  it  rang  again.  That  pleases  these  talkative  old  men.'  " 
Hatzfeld  remarked,  that  ^Nloltke  had  written  to  Trochu,  to  tell 
him  the  real  state  of  things  at  Orleans.  "He  gave  him  liberty 
to  send  out  an  officer  to  convince  himself  of  the  truth,  offering 
him  a  safe  conduct  to  Orleans."  The  Chief  said,  "I  know.  I 
should  have  liked  better  that  they  had  let  the  proposal  origin- 
ate with  him.  Our  lines  are  at  present  thin  in  several  places  , 
and,  besides,  they  have  their  carrier-pigeon  post.  When  we  in 
vite  them  to  come  out  and  see  for  themselves,  it  looks  as  if  ^y^) 
were  in  a  great  hurry  for  the  capitulation." 

Tuesday,  December  6. —  Before  breakfast,  I  telegraphed  par- 
ticulars of  the  battle  at  Orleans  to  Berlin  and  London.  After- 
wards I  drew  up  articles  for  the  Moniteur,  and  for  several 
German  papers,  on  the  breach  of  their  parole  by  several  captive 
French  officers,  some  of  whom  are  again  to  be  pursued  Avith 
letters  of  caption.  EveA  General  Barral,  now  in  command  of 
the  army  of  the  Loire,  made  his  escape  in  this  disgi-aceful  fash- 
ion. He  gave  a  written  promise  on  his  word  of  honoi-,  aftn- 
]6 


234        Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War. 

the  suiTender  of  Strassburg,  not  once  but  twice  over,  that  he 
would  not  in  this  war  bear  arms  against  the  Prussians  and  their 
allies,  and  that  he  would  do  nothing  whatever  to  the  injury  of 
the  German  armies.  He  then  went  oif  to  Colmar,  and  from 
thence  to  the  Loire,  when  he  re-entered  the  French  service — an 
unprecedented  infamy.  The  gentlemen  of  the  Tours  goverment 
made  no  objection  to  him.  These  gentlemen,  whom  the  Belgian 
papers  are  never  tired  of  praising  up  as  honest  folk,  men  of 
honor,  and  so  forth,  went  even  farther  than  that.  They  dis- 
patched a  certain  M.  E,icard  to  the  French  officers  now  interned 
in  Belgium,  who  gathered  them  together  in  the  house  of 
Taschard,  the  representative  of  MM.  Gambetta  and  Favre  in 
Brussels,  and  then  urged  and  threatened  them  to  break 
the  word  of  honor  they  had  given  the  Belgian  authori- 
ties, to  make  their  way  back  to  France,  and  to  take  service 
there  once  more  against  the  Germans.  Even  in  Silesia  such 
emmissaries  seem  to  have  over-persuaded  some  officers  of  low 
character.  In  the  history  of  warfare  cases  like  these  are  cer- 
tainly not  numerous.  But  the  affair  has  another  aspect  ;  these 
disgraceful  proceedings  must  give  the  Gennan  authorities  gi*eat 
reason  to  question  how  far  they  can  trust  a  government  like 
that  of  the  National  Defence.  When  a  government  stoops  to 
invite  officers  to  break  their  word  of  honor ;  when  it  employs 
and  makes  use  of  officers  who  have  done  so,  on  its  own  initiative, 
proving  by  so  doing  that  it  shares  and '  excuses  these  low  con- 
ceptions of  the  value  of  solemn  promises,  we  must,  as  a  matter 
of  course,  treat  it  as  in  the  last  degree  untrustworthy,  so  long 
as  it  goes  on  tempting  its  captive  officers  to  break  their  parole, 
and  employing  and  making  use  of  them,  after  they  have  done 
so. 

Dr.  Lauer  and  Odo  Paissell  were  at  table.  The  conversation 
was  of  no  special  interest,  and  almost  no  politics  were  talked  at 
;all.  But  we  had  some  delicious  wines  from  the  Palatinate — 
Deidesheimer  Hofstiick  and  Foster  Kirchenstiick — the  best 
t>lood  of  the  grape,  rich  in  every  virtue,  fragrant  and  fiery. 
■"From  fire  man's  spirit  was  created."  Even  Bucher,  who  usii- 
ally  drinks  only  red  wine,  did  honor  to  this  heavenly  dew  from 
the  Haardt  mountains. 

In  the  eveiung,  Consul  Bamberg,  the  new  editor  of  our  Ver- 
sailles journal — an  elderly  man  in  a  sort  of  sea-captain's  uniform, 
flying  the  ribands  of  a  couple  of  orders — paid  us  what  is  after 
this  to  be  a  daily  visit.     The  recent  inspection  of  the  hospital 


Diseased  Paris.  235 

in  the  chateau  by  the  Chief  has  given  rise  to  an  inquiry,  and 
if  I  understand  rightly,  he  has  had  had  a  letter  from  the  war 
ministry  informing  him  that  everything  is  in  perfect  order,  that 
the  sick  have  been  getting  what  was  proper  for  them,  and  that 
^'--^  -r.-^fjnp]  -who  told  him  of  the  alleged  neglect  had  been  suit- 
ably punished.* 

According  to  English  accounts  from  Paris  things  began,  quite 
a  fortnight  since,  to  be  very  uncomfortable  there.  Several 
kinds  of  disease  have  broken  out,  and  the  death  cases  are  con- 
siderably more  numerous  than  in  ordinary  times.  Anxiety  and 
disheartenment,  as  well  as  want  of  food,  have  contributed.  In 
the  first  week  of  September  there  were  900  deaths  ;  in  that 
ending  the  5th  of  October,  nearly  twice  as  many  ;  in  the  follow- 
ing week,  1900.  Small-pox  rages  in  the  town,  and  is  carrying 
off  many  victims ;  and  a  great  number  of  people  have  died  of 
bowel  disease.  Home-sickness  has  broken  out  like  an  epidemic 
among  the  battalions  recruited  from  the  provinces.  An  English 
correspondent  who  visited  the  hospital  "  du  Midi"  in  the  last 
week  of  October,  noticed  a  placard  above  the  entrance-gate,  on 
which  was  printed,  "  Any  person  bringing  in  a  cat,  a  dog,  or 
three  rats,  will  get  his  breakfast  and  dinner.  N.B.  It  is  abso- 
lut^ely  essential  that  the  animals  be  brought  in  alive."  Similar 
placards  are  said  to  be  quite  common  at  the  gates  of  the  Paris 
hospitals. 

It  wants  still  five  minutes  of  midnight.  The  Minister  is  al- 
ready ofi"  to  bed — very  early  for  him.  The  candles  in  the  bottles 
I  use  for  candlesticks  are  nearly  burnt  out.  Mont  Valerien 
thunders  down  a  frightful  salute  into  the  valley  below  it.  With 
what  object  ?  Perhaps  it  is  only  to  tell  the  Parisians  it  is  about 
twelve  o'clock,  a  sort  of  night  watchman  calling  the  hour  j 
otherwise  all  this  shooting  is  much  ado  about  nothing.  l>uring 
tlie  last  two  days  of  battle,  Abeken  was  told  to-day  that  the 
forts  threw  about  6000  bombs  and  grenades,  but  only  fifty-three 
of  our  men  were  hurt  by  them,  and  several  of  them  only  slightly 
wounded. 

*  For  details  see  a  subsequent  paga 


236        Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War, 


CHAPTER  Xin 

PROSPECTS   BEFORE    PARIS   IMPROYB. 


WEDNESDAY,  December  ;'.— Disagreeable  weather.  Only 
now  and  then  a  shot  fired  from  the  forts  or  the  gun- 
boats. The  lies  with  which  Gambetta  and  his  people  have  been 
trying  to  stop  up  the  hole  which  the  defeat  of  the  "red-breeches" 
at  Orleans  has  knocked  in  the  hopes  the  people  cherished  of  a 
great  victory  over  us,  induced  us  to  send  the  following  note  to 
the  Moniteur: — "The  members  of  the  Government  of  Tours 
have  published  accounts  of  the  defeat  of  the  Army  of  the  Loire 
which  read  like  fragments  of  the  '  Arabian  Nights.'  For  in- 
stance, their  telegram  says,  'The  retreat  of  the  Army  of  the 
Loire  was  accomplished  ^vithout  loss,  except  that  we  left  the 
heavy  ships'  guns  spiked  in  the  entrenched  camp.'  In  reality, 
12,000  unwounded  prisoners  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  German 
troops.  The  Tours  dispatch  goes  on  to  say,  '  we  lost  no  field 
artillery.'  Forty-seven  field-pieces,  and  several  mitrailleuses, 
were  captured  by  the  conquerors.  The  German  people,  remem- 
bering the  virtues  of  the  Catos,  Aristideses,  and  other  Republi- 
cans of  antiquity,  were  disposed  to  hope  that  the  Republic 
would  have  wiped  lying  out  of  the  list  of  its  means  of  operation, 
and  fancied  that  it  would  lie  less,  at  all  events  than  the  Empire. 
It  was  evidently  wrong.  These  Catos  of  the .  present  day  have 
put  to  shame  all  previous  attempts  to  substitute  untruth  for 
truth.  When  they  have  anything  disagreeable  to  lie  aAvay,  the 
advocates  of  Tours  are  much  more  unblushing  than  the  generals 
of  the  Empire."  Afterwards  I  telegraphed  the  new  advances 
of  our  armies  in  the  north,  and  the  occupation  of  Rouen. 

After  three  o'clock  I  went  with  Wollman  across  the  Place 
d'Armes  towards  the  court  of  the  chateau,  where  fourteen  of 
the  bronze  guns  taken  at  Orleans  are  ranged  under  the  very 
f  yes  of  the  equestrian  statue  of  Louis  XIV.,  directly  below  the 


Austrian  Diplomatists.  237 

inscription,  'A  toutes  les  gloires  de  In  France '  (to  all  the  glories 
of  France),  an  ironical  comment  upon  that  expression  of  Gallic 
conceit  and  swagger.  The  guns  were  some  of  them  twelve  and 
some  four  pounders,  and  behind  them  were  ranged  gun-carriages 
and  ammunition  carts.  The  French  guns  have  each  a  name — 
one,  for  instance,  is  called  "Le  Bayard,"  another,  "Le  Lauzun," 
a  third,  ['  Le  Boucheron  /'  while  others  are  "  Le  Maxant," 
"  Le  Repace,"  "  Le  Brisetout,"  or  similar  horrors.  On  several 
there  is  a  scrawl,  stating  that  they  were  captured  by  the  4th 
Hussar  Regiment. 

Counts  Holnstein  and  Lehndorf  were  with  us  at  dinner. 
We  had  the  fine  Deidesheimer  again.  The  Chief  began  to 
talk,  inter  alia,  of  his  recollections  of  Frankfort.  "I  got  on 
well  with  Thun  ;  he  was  an  honest  man.  Rechl^erg  was  not 
bad  upon  the  whole ;  at  least,  he  was  personally  honorable, 
though  he  was  very  violent  and  eflfervescing — one  of  those 
furious  very  fair  folks."  He  went  on  to  say  :  "  No  Austrian 
diplomatist  of  the  school  of  that  day  troubled  himself  very 
much  about  the  exact  truth.  The  third  of  them,  Prokesch,  was 
not  at  all  the  man  for  me.  He  had  brought  with  him  from  the 
East  the  trick  of  the  most  miserable  intrigues.  Truth  was  a 
matter  of  absolute  indifference  to  him.  I  remember  once,  in  a 
large  company,  there  was  some  talk  of  an  Austrian  assertion 
which  did  not  square  with  the  truth.  Prokesch  raised  his 
voice,  and  said,  so  that  I  should  hear  him  distinctly,  '  If  that 
Avere  not  true  I  should  have  been  f]/ing  (and  he  emphasized  the 
word),  in  the  name  of  the  Imperial  Royal  Government.'  He 
looked  me  straight  in  the  face.  I  returned  the  look,  and  said 
quietly,  '  Quite  so,  your  Excellency.'  He  was  obviously 
shocked  ;  but  when  on  looking  round  he  perceived  nothing  but 
down-dropped  eyes  and  solemn  silence,  which  meant  to  say  that 
I  was  in  the  right,  he  turned  on  his  heel  and  went  into  the 
dining-room,  where  covers  were  laid.  After  dinner  he  had  re- 
covered himself,  and  came  across  to  me  with  a  full  glass,  for 
otherwise  I  should  have  supposed  that  he  was  going  to  call  me 
out.  He  said,  '  Come,  now  ;  let  us  make  friends.'  '  Why  notf 
said  I ;  '  but  the  protocol  must  of  course  be  altered.'  '  You  are 
incorrigible,'  he  replied,  smiling.  It  Avas  all  right.  The  pro- 
tocol was  altered,  so  that  they  recognized  that  it  had  contained 
an  untruth."  Afterwards  we  spoke  of  Goltz,  and  the  Chief 
once  more  told  the  Beaumont  story  of  his  unpopularity  with 
his  people,  and  asked  Hatzfeld  whether  he  had  had  anything 


238        Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War. 

to  complain  of  from  Goltz.  Hatzfeld  said  "  No  ;  but  it  was 
quite  true  that  Goltz  did  not  get  on  well  with  the  people  of  the 
Embassy." 

Hatzfeld  told  us  at  tea  that  numerous  prisoners  had  passed 
through  to-day,  and  that  there  had  been  considerable  disturb- 
ance and  disorder  because  civilians,  especially  women,  had 
pressed  in  among  the  people,  so  that  the  escort  had  been  driven 
to  make  use  of  the  butt  ends  of  their  muskets.  .  .  .  We 
then  spoke  of  the  bombardment,  and  the  gentlemen  agreed  that 
the  King  really  wished  it,  and  that  there  was  a  hope  that  it 
would  begin  very  soon.  .  .  .  Moltke,  it  was  added,  wished  it  too. 
He  had  recently  received  an  answer  from  Trochu  to  the  letter 
he  had  sent,  the  sum  and  substance  of  which  was,  "  Many  thanks  • 
but,  for  the  present,  we  had  better  leave  things  as  they  are." 

Thursday/,  December  S. — A  great  deal  of  snow  fell,  and  it 
was  tolerably  cold,  so  much  so,  that,  in  spite  of  the  big  beech 
logs  which  were  burning  in  my  fireplace,  I  could  not  get  reason- 
ably warm  in  my  room.  .  .  .  Prince  Putbus  was  with  us  at 
dinner.  Besides  other  good  things,  we  had  omelettes  with 
mushrooms,  and,  as  several  times  previously,  pheasant  and  sauer 
kraut  boiled  in  champagne.  There  was  also  Froster  Kirchen- 
stiick  and  Deidesheimer  Hofstiick.  The  Minister  said  that  he 
preferred  the  former.  "  The  Forster,"  he  said,  "  is  undoubted- 
ly a  higher  style  of  wine  than  the  Deidesheimer."  Finally,  be- 
sides this  and  other  excellent  drinks,  we  had  an  admirable  old 
corn  brandy.  Putbus  suggested  that  sauer  kraut  was  not  whole- 
some, and  the  Chief  said,  "  I  do  not  think  so.  I  eat  it  precise- 
ly because  I  believe  it  to  be  wholesome.  But,  Engel,  give  us  a 
schnaps "  (a  drop  of  Brandy).  The  Minister  then  showed 
Putbus  the  menu,  and,  during  conversation  about  it,  it  was 
mentioned  that  a  young  diplomatist  in  Vienna  had  carefully 
collected  all  the  menus  of  his  chief,  and  preserved  them  in  two 
finely-bound  volumes,  in  which  some  most  interesting  combina- 
tions were  to  be  found. 

Later  on,  the  Chancellor  remarked  that  the  French  must  now 
have  got  one  or  two  very  big  guns  in  one  of  the  forts  nearest 
us.  "  One  can  make  that  out  by  the  report,  which  is  much 
louder,  but  they  may  very  likely  hurt  themselves  with  them. 
If  they  use  a  very  heavy  charge,  the  gun  will  either  turn  round 
and  shoot  straight  into  the  town,  or  blow  itself  to  pieces,  though 
of  course  it  might  sometimes  go  off  right,  and  then  the  shot 
might  reach  us  at  Versailles." 


Sivells,  Snobs,  and  Cockneys,  239 

Somebody  asked  what  was  the  position  of  the  Emperor  of 
Germany  question,  and  the  Chief  said  :  "  We  have  had  troiible 
about  it,  with  telegrams  and  letters ;  but  the  most  important 
were  those  which  Count  Holnstein  brought  us — a  very  intelli- 
gent person."  Pu thus  asked  what  office  he  held.  "Master  of 
the  Horse.  He  made  a  journey  to  Munich  and  back  again  in 
six  days.  1  n  the  condition  of  the  railroads  he  must  have  made 
a  great  efiort  to  manage  it.  Certainly  he  had  a  capital  consti- 
tution to  help  him  ;  and  he  went,  not  merely  to  Munich,  but 
as  far  as  Hohenschwangau.  King  Ludwig,  too,  contributed 
very  much  to  the  speedy  settlement  of  the  afiair.  He  took  the 
matter  up  at  once,  and  gave  a  decisive  answer  without  putting 
oft'  time." 

I  do  not  know  how  it  came  about  that  the  conversation  hap- 
pened upon  the  expressions,  "  swells,  snobs,  and  cockneys," 
which  were  then  discussed  at  length.  The  Chief  called  a  certain 
gentleman  in  the  diplomatic  service  a  "  swell,"  and  went  on  to 
say  :  "  It  is  a  capital  word,  the  force  of  which  we  cannot  quite 
give  in  German.  It  is  something  like  '  stutzer  '  (a  dandy),  but 
it  includes,  besides,  a  puffed-out  chest,  and  a  sort  of  general 
blown-up-ness. 

"  '  Snob '  is  quite  different,  and  we  have  no  exact  expression 
for  that  either.  It  signifies  different  things  and  properties, 
especially  one-sidednes,  narrowness  and  Philistinism,  and  that  a 
man  cannot  get  out  of  mere  local  or  temporary  views.  The 
snob  is  a  sort  of  bourgeois  person.  All  this  is  not  quite  a 
complete  description.  He  cannot  get  beyond  the  interests  of 
his  family  ;  his  circle  of  vision  in  political  questions  is  extreme- 
ly limited  :  he  is  shut  in  by  the  ways  of  thinking  and  the  pre- 
judices in  v/hich  he  has  been  brought  up.  There  are  snobs,  and 
very  decided  snobs  too,  of  the  female  sex.  We  may  also  speak 
of  party  snobs — those  who  cannot  help  placing  the  higher  poli- 
tics on  the  same  basis  as  questions  of  individual  rights,  radical, 
snobs  (fortschrittsnobs). 

"  A  Cockney  again  is  different.  The  word  is  applied  chiefly 
to  Londoners.  There  are  people  there  who  have  never  got  out- 
side their  walls  and  streets,  their  bricks  and  mortar — who  liave- 
never  seen  a  green  thing,  who  have  learned  life  only  in  town, 
and  heard  nothing  beyond  the  sound  of  Bow  bells.  We  have 
people  in  Berlin  also  who  have  never  been  away  from  it ;  but 
compared  with  London,  and  even  with  Paris,  which  also  has  its 
cockneys,  though  they  have  a  different  name  there,  Berlin  is  a 


240        Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War. 

little  place.  In  London,  hundreds  of  thousands  of  people  have 
never  seen  anything  beyond  the  city.  In  such  big  towns  views 
sprout  up,  ramify,  and  harden  into  permanent  prejudices  for 
those  who  live  in  them.  It  is  in  these  great  centres  of  popula- 
tion, where  there  is  no  experience,  and  consequently  no  correct 
idea — in  many  cases  not  even  a  conception — of  anything  outside 
of  them,  that  this  simpleton  sort  of  narrowness  is  born.  A 
simpleton  who  is  not  conceited  is  tolerable  enough,  but  a  sim- 
pleton who  is  impracticable,  and  conceited  liesides,  is  not  to  be 
endured.  People  in  the  country  districts  have  a  much  better 
chance  of  understanding  life  as  it  really  exists  and  grows  about 
them.  They  may  have  less  education,  but  what  they  know  they 
usually  do  know.  There  are  snobs,  of  course,  in  the  country. 
Well,  for  instance"  (turning  to  Putbus),  "a  first-rate  hunts- 
man, who  is  thoroughly  convinced  that .  he  is  the  first  man  in 
the  whole  world,  that  hunting  is  really  everything,  and  that 
people  who  understand  nothing  about  it  are  worth  nothing  at 
all ;  and  a  man  on  an  estate  outside  there,  where  he  is  every- 
body, and  where  all  the  people  depend  entirely  upon  him.  When 
he  comes  in  from  the  country  to  the  wool-market,  and  finds  that 
nobody  in  the  town  takes  him  at  the  value  at  which  he  is  esti- 
mated at  home,  he  gets  low,  sits  down  on  his  woolsack  and  sulks, 
and  takes  no  interest  afterwards  in  anything  but  wool." 

The  conversation  dropped  away  soon  after  this  into  stories 
about  horses  and  horsemanship.  The  Chief  told  us  about  his 
l)rown  mare,  which  he  had  not  at  first  thought  much  of,  but 
which  carried  him  for  thirteen  hours  at  Sedan — at  least  fifty- 
five  English  miles — and  which  was  quite  fit  for  service  next 
day.  Then  he  gave  us  other  stories  of  horsemanship ;  telling 
us  for  instance,  how  once,  when  he  was  out  riding  with  his 
daughter,  he  had  come  up  to  a  ditch  which  he  himself  certainly 
would  never  have  liked  to  take,  but  which  the  Countess,  her 
hoi*se  having  got  into  his  stride,  took  quite  easily,  and  so 
forth. 

At  tea  Keudell  said  I  was  in  future  to  get  not  merely  the 
rough  draughts  and  sketches  of  important  political  matters 
which  the  Chief  gave  me,  I  was  to  see  everything;  he  would 
talk  the  matter  over  with  Abeken,  who  holds  the  position  of 
secretary  of  state  here,  a  piece  of  news  which  I  heard  with  much 
gratification.  Bucher  told  me  that  the  Minister  had  given  them 
a  very  interesting  discourse  in  the  salon  when  cofiee  came  on 
the  table.     Prince  von  Putbus  had  spoken  of  his  wish  to  travel 


The  Reichstag  aiid  the  Bavarian  Agreement.    241 

in  very  distant  countries.  "  Yes,  and  we  might  help  you,"  said 
the  Cliief ;  "  we  might  send  you  to  notify  the  establishment  of 
the  German  Empire  to  the  Emperor  of  China  and  the  Tycoon 
of  Japan." 

Friday,  December  9. — I  telegraph  the  victory,  the  day  before 
yesterday,  of  oiir  17th  Division  at  Beaugency  over  a  French 
corps  of  about  sixteen  battalions,  A^nth  six-and-twenty  cannon, 
and  I  contradict  the  story  of  the  Gazette  de  France  about  Galvez, 
the  Ambassador  of  Peru. 

At  breakfast  we  were  told  that  Prince  Tinibetzkoi,  a  relation 
of  Orloff 's,  want<3d  protection  for  his  villaJrom  our  army  police, 
and  had  also  asked  the  Chancellor  that  our  troops  should  be 
taken  away  from  the  neighborhood  of  his  property,  as  their 
being  massed  there  raises  the  price  of  the  necessaries  of  life. 
His  letter  will  go  to  the  waste-paper  basket.  The  Commandant 
of  Versailles,  General  von  Voigts-Rhetz,  was  with  us  at  dinner. 
I  beHeve  he  is  a  brother  of  hyn  who  was  governor-general  in 
Hanover  in  1866,  and  who  has  now  won  the  battle  of  Beaune 
la  Rolande,  a  long  man  ydth.  dark  beard  and  eagle  nose.  The 
conversation,  which  turned  principally  on  the  recent  battles  be- 
tween Orleans  and  Blois,  was  of  no  particular  importance.  The 
Chief  was  absent,  being  vmwell,  and  it  is  believed  that  he  has 
pains  in  his  leg. 

Saturday,  December  10 — The  Chief  is  not  yet  right.  At 
dinner  the  Chief,  Bismarck-Bohlen,  who  has  been  suffering  for 
three  days,  and  Abeken,  who  has  had  the  good  fortune  to  be 
commanded  to  dine  with  the  Cro^v'n  Prince,  were  all  absent. 
In  the  evening  I  prepared  for  the  King  an  ari;icle  in  the 
National  Zeitung,  which  shows  that  they  are  speaking  even  in 
the  Reichstag  of  the  delay  in  the  bombardment,  and  which 
also  expresses  a  wish  for  some  explanation  of  the  reasons  of  the 
delay. 

Having  been  sent  for  by  the  Chief,  I  took  the  liberi;y  before 
lea^^ng  to  ask  how  things  were  going  on  in  the  Reichstag 
about  the  treaties.  He  replied,  "All  right  ;  the  agreement 
■with  Bavaria  will  either  be  adopted  to-day,  or  voted  upon  to- 
morrow, and  the  address  to  the  King  too."  I  then  permitted 
myself  to  ask  how  he  was  in  health.  "  Better,"  he  said,  "  it 
is  a  %'aricose  vein  in  the  leg."  I  said,  would  it  trouble  him 
long  ]  "  It  may  go  away  in  a  day,  or  it  may  bother  me  for 
three  weeks." 

Keudell  told  us  at  tea  that  the  Reichstag  had  decided  to  send 


242        Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War. 

a  great  deputation  to  Versailles,  charged  to  present  its  con- 
gratulations to  the  King  on  the  unity  of  Germany,  and  on  the 
restoration  of  the  dignity  of  Emperor.  Abeken  did  not  like 
this.  He  said,  sulkily,  "  It  is  frightful  for  the  Reichstag  to 
send  us  thirty  fellows  here — a  deputation  of  thirty  people  is  really 
dreadful."  He  gave  us  no  hint  of  his  reason  for  being  annoyed. 
Thirty  wise  Bonzes  with  the  title  of  Privy  Councillors  might 
possibly  not  have  been  frightful,  but  thirty  Marshals  of  the 
Household  are  enough  to  excite  one.  Hatzfeld  expressed  him- 
self anxious  about  our  immediate  future  in  a  military  point  of 
view.  He  believes  that  there  is  room  for  anxiety  about  our 
position  in  the  west.  Yon  der  Tann,  he  says,  has  only  25,000 
left  of  his  45,000  men,  and  the  armies  which  have  sprung  out 
of  the  ground  at  the  'stamp  of  Gambetta's  foot,  are  continually 
growing  in  number.  News  has  come  in  at  the  Bureau  that  the 
French  have  got  together  two  very  large  armies,  and  that  the 
seat  of  Government  has  been  removed  from  Tours  to  Bordeaux. 
It  is  doubtful,  of  course,  how  long  this  energy  of  Gambetta 
will  meet  with  a  response  in  the  capacity  for  resistance  in  the 
country,  and  its  readiness  to  submit  to  further  military  drains. 
In  the  southern  departments  people  appear  to  be  very  much 
discontented  and  thoroughly  exhausted  with  this  destructive 
war. 

Sunday,  December  11.— In  the  morning,  at  nine  o'clock,  we 
have  five  degrees  of  cold,  the  garden  below  is  covered  with 
hoar-frost,  and  the  moisture  is  frozen  in  delicate  thread- work 
on  the  bi'anches  of  the  trees  and  shrubs.  I  pay  Bismarck-Boh- 
len  a  sick  visit,  his  illness  having  taken  another  form.  The 
Chief,  too,  has  not  yet  quite  recovered,  but  he  must  be  better, 
for  he  drives  out  about  two  o'clock.  Half  an  hour  later,  I 
take  a  walk  through  the  park  of  the  chateau,  where  about  fifty 
persons,  some  of  them  ladies  of  doubtful  character,  and  three 
or  four  whose  characters  are  not  at  all  doubtful,  are  skating  on 
the  big  central  reservoir.  As  I  came  back,  I  heard  somebody 
scolding  furiously  in  French.  Looking  round,  I  noticed 
walking  right  behind  me  an  elderly  man,  who  limped  a  little, 
and  who  was  abusing  an  over-dressed  and  over-painted  female 
who  was  going  mincingly  past  us.  "  Shameless  woman,  who 
bring  disgrace  into  oiir  families,  and  ruin  on  our  young  people; 
they  ought  to  be  driven  out  of  the  town,"  he  said,  turning  to 
me  as  if  he  wished  to  bring  me  into  the  conversation.  Then  he 
came  close  up,  constantly  scolding,  and  ultimately  coming  to  a 


Balloons  draiun  by  Eac/les.  243 

person  of  the  male  sex,  whom  he  called  the  destroyer  of  France, 
declaring  that  the  misery  into  which  these  men  had  plunged  their 
country  was  a  frightful  spectacle,  which  cried  aloud  to 
Heaven.  I  said  to  him,  "  But  France,  you  know,  wanted  the 
war,  and  must  accept  the  consequences."  He  allowed  that,, 
but  still  burst  out  in  furious  abuse  of  the  Republic  and  its; 
leaders,  especially  Gambetta  ;  Trochu,  Favre,  Gambetta,  and 
the  whole  of  them,  were  good-for-nothing  blood-suckers.  The 
Republic  meant  government  in  the  interests  of  the  dregs  of  the 
people,  who  looked  askance  at  the  comforts  of  their  neighbors, 
and  would  like  to  distribute  tlie  plunder  amongst  themselves. 
He  would  rather  see  the  King  of  Prussia  master  of  France,  and 
the  country  mutilated,  cut  up  small,  and  broken  into  fragments, 
than  the  Republic.  The  Emperor,  too,  had  been  good  for  noth- 
ing. He  was  a  mere  usurper.  Louis  Philippe  had  pleased 
him  just  as  little  ;  he  was  not  the  right  heir.  Bvit  the  Republic 
was  the  worst  of  all  ;  and  so  on.  I  accompanied  the  enraged 
Legitimist  as  far  as  the  Place  Hoche,  where  I  left  him,  after 
he  had  told  me  his  name  and  address,  and  I  had  promised  that 
I  would  pay  him  a  visit  soon. 

The  Chief  dined  with  us  to  night,  but  spoke  little,  and  com- 
plained of  headache.  Hatzfeld  told  us  that  Hartrott  had  just 
informed  him  that  4400  horses  and  1000  wagons  were  on  the 
way  from  Germany  to  be  used  in  the  transport  of  ammunition. 
The  bombardment  of  Paris  would  begin  in  eight  or  ten  days. 
The  Chief  answered,  "  It  ought  to  have  b^gxm  sooner,  and,  as 
for  the  eight  days,  that  has  often  been  promised  us." 

Our  Moniteur  gives  us  another  list  of  the  French  officers 
who  have  escaped  by  breaking  their  parole.  There  are  no 
fewer  than  twenty -two  of  them,  ten  of  whom  escaped  from 
Hirschberg.  I  see  from  the  same  paper  that  the  Pall  Mall 
Gazette  has  accepted  as  genuine  coin,  and  passed  into  circul- 
ation, a  joke  in  the  manner  of  Baron  Miinchausen.  Moved  by 
the  mischances  that  have  happened  to  several  of  the  air-bal- 
loons sent  up  from  Paris,  the  Fi'ench  are  supposed  to  have  put 
their  calculating  finger  to  their  nose,  and  to  have  solved  the 
problem  of  guiding  these  conveyances  in  the  following  manner. 
It  is  as  simple  as  the  egg  of  Columbus.  They  harness  eagles  to 
them.  The  correspondent  of  the  newspaper  writes,  "  However 
extravagant  the  idea  of  making  birds  guide  balloons  to  their 
destination  may  appear,  people  in  Paris  have  gone  into  the 
matter  seriously.     It  is  said  that  satisfactory  experiments  have 


244        Bismarck  in  the  Franco-Gervian  War. 

been  made  with  eagles  from  the  Botanic  gardens,  harnessed  to 
the  car.  These  experiments  took  place  in  the  presence  of  the 
Postmaster-General  Ramport,  of  M.  Chassinat,  of  the  chief  of 
the  postal  service  in  the  Department  of  the  Seine,  and  of  the 
Keceiver-General  Mattet.  Four  or  six  powerful  birds  were 
harnessed  to  the  balloon,  and  were  guided  by  an  aeronaut  by 
means  of  a  piece  of  raw  flesh  fastened  to  the  end  of  a  long  stick, 
which  was  held  in  front  of  their  beaks.  The  greedy  birds  keep 
struggling  in  vain  to  reach  it,  as  it  moves  through  the  air  with 
the  same  velocity  as  they  do.  When  the  aeronaut  wishes  the 
balloon  to  move  in  a  different  direction,  he  turns  the  stick,  with 
the  beef-steak  at  the  end,  to  the  right  or  left.  If  Jie  wants  to 
go  down,  he  drops  it  ;  if  to  ascend,  he  lifts  it  up."  The  editor 
of  the  Moniteur  adds  the  remark,  "  We  are  afraid  that  these 
eagles  were  geese." 

Hatzfeld  told  me  at  tea  all  sorts  of  interesting  things  about 
his  experiences  and  observations  in  Paris.  In  1866  Napoleon 
said  to  Goltz,  that  he  could  not  allow  a  complete  incorporation 
of  Saxony  wHith  Prussia,  but  if  only  the  name  and  a  small  por- 
tion of  the  kingdom — Dresden,  for  instance,  with  a  few  square 
miles  in  th§  neighborhood — were  left,  he  would  be  quite  con- 
tent. If  that  be  true,  I  have  reason  to  think  that  the  Chief's 
advice  was  to  take  no  advantage  of  this  offer.  At  first  the  Em- 
press could  not  endure  Goltz,  for  the  following  reason.  During 
the  interim  between  Goltz  and  his  predecessor.  Prince  Reuss 
represented  the  embassy,  and  the  Court  was  very  much  attach- 
ed to  him ;  he  was  5n  high  consideration,  especially  as  coming 
of  a  princely  family.  Eugenie  would  have  liked  him  to 
have  been  ambassador,  but  he  was  sent  off"  to  Brussels, 
and  the  Empress  attributed  that  to  Goltz,  disliked  him 
for  it,  recei^'ed  him  with .  marked  coldness,  never  invited 
him  to  her  select  parties,  and  only  saluted  him,  not  speaking  to 
him  at  all,  upon  public  occasions.  Goltz,  who  was  supposed  to 
have  been  much  smitten  with  her,  often  went  away  in  a  regular 
fury.  Once,  however,  when  he  happened  to  be  invited  to  such 
a  select  evening,  she  had  been  compelled  to  say  something  to 
him,  and  in  her  perplexity,  nothing  occurred  to  her  but  the 
question,  "  What  is  Prince  Reuss  doing  now  ?"  When  Goltz 
went  home,  he  j^said  to  be  in  a  frightful  rage,  and  to  have  used 
a  disagreeable  epithet.  .  .  .  Afterwards,  however,  the  relation- 
ship between  them  improved,  and  Goltz  ultimately  stood  so 
well  with  the  Emperor,  that  Jie  (Hatzfeld)  was  of  opinion  that 


The  Emvpi^ess  and  the  Restoration.  245 

if  Goltz  had  been  alive  in  1870,  there  would  have  been  no  war 
between  us  and  France. 

I  asked  what  sort  of  woman  the  Empress  was.  He  said, 
"  Very  beautiful,  not  over  middle  height,  splendid  bust,  fair, 
with  much  natural  intelligence,  but  little  acquired  learning, 
and  few  interests  in  intellectual  matters."  She  had  once  taken 
him,  with  other  gentlemen,  through  her  rooms,  and  even  into 
her  sleeping  apartment,  but  he  had  nowhere  seen  a  book,  or  even 
a  newspaper.  Hatzfeld  is  of  opinion  that  things  will  come  round 
in  the  end  to  Napoleon's  restoration.  After  all,  he  was  not  so 
bad  as  people  represented  him :  and  certainly  by  nature,  he  was 
the  very  reverse  of  truculent,  being  rather  soft.  If  the  French 
should  see  that  they  cannot  pull  through  with  their  Republic 
of  advocates,  through  whom  they  are  falling  more  and  more  in- 
to ruin,  they  would  invite  him  back  again  some  day.  As  a  second 
time  the  Saviour  of  Society,  he  might  venture  to  treat  with  us 
upon  the  basis  of  what  we  require  in  order  to  make  peace. 
His  services  in  securing  order  night  then  make  up  for  the  loss 
in  power  and  authority,  which  would  be  the  necessary  conse- 
quence of  his  giving  up  Elsass  and  part  of  Lothringen. 

Moiiday,  Deceynber  12. — The  Chief  appears  to  be  worse  again, 
and  he  is  said  to  be  in  a  very  fretful  temper  ;  Dr.  Lauer  has 
been  with  him.  The  Times  contains  an  article,  which  is  all  we 
could  wish,  the  principal  points  of  which  I  may  note  here.  It 
is  as  follows  ;  "In  the  present  crisis  it  is  not  the  duty  of  the 
Germans  to  show  high  feeling  or  sympathy,  or  magnanimously 
to  forgive  their  defeated  enemy.  The  question  rather  is  of  a 
simple  piece  of  business  and  of  prudence.  What  will  the  enemy 
do  after  the  war,  when  he  has  recovered  his  strength !  People 
in  England  have  but  a  faint  recollection  of  the  numerous  cruel 
lesson.s  which  Germany  has  had  from  France  during  the  last 
four  centuries.  For  400  years  no  nation  has  had  such  bad 
neighbors  as  they  have  found  in  the  French  who  were  always  un- 
sociable, irreconcileable,  greedy  of  territory,  not  ashamed  to  take 
it,  and  always  ready  to  assume  the  offensive.  During  this 
whole  time  Germany  has  endured  the  encroachments  and  usur- 
pations of  France.  To-<lay  when  she  has  won  the  victory  and 
has  conquered  her  neighbor,  it  would  in  our  opinion  be  very 
foolish  of  her  not  to  take  advantage  of  the  situation,  and  not  to 
acquire  for  herself  a  boundary  likely  to  secure  peace  for  her  in 
the  future.  As  far  as  we  know  there  is  no  law  in  the  world 
entitling  France  to  retain  the  territories  which  were  formerly 


246        Bismarck  in  the  Franco-Gei^man  War. 

annexed  by  her,  after  the  owners,  from  whom  they  were  taken, 
have  laid  their  hands  upon  the  thief.  The  French  complain 
bitterly  to  those  who  will  listen  to  them  that  they  are  exposed 
to  losses  which  threaten  their  honor,  and  they  incessantly  and 
earnestly  entreat  people  not  to  dishonor  poor  France,  to  leave 
her  honor  unstained.  Will  her  honor,  however,  be  preserved, 
if  France  refuses  to  pay  for  her  neighbor's  windows  which  she 
has  broken?  The  real  fact  is,  that  she  lost  her  honor  when 
she  broke  her  neighbor's  windows,  and  only  her  deep  repen- 
tance, and  her  honest  determination  not  to  repeat  the  offence, 
can  restore  it. 

"  We  must  say  with  all  frankness,  that  France  has  never 
.shown  herself  so  senseless,  so  pitiful,  so  worthy  of  contempt 
and  reproach,  as  at  the  present  moment,  when  she  obstinately 
declines  to  look  the  facts  in  the  face,  and  refuses  to  accept  the 
misfortune  her  own  conduct  has  brought  upon  her.  A  France 
broken  up  in  utter  anarchy — Ministers  who  have  no  recognised 
chief,  who  rise  from  the  dust  in  their  air  balloons,  and  carry 
with  them  for  ballast  shameful  and  manifest  lies  and  proclama- 
tions of  victories  that  exist  only  in  their  imagination — a 
government  which  is  sustained  by  lying  and  imposture,  and 
chooses  rather  to  continue  and  to  increase  the  waste  of  human 
life  than  to  resign  its  own  dictatorship  and  its  wonderful 
Utopia  of  a  Republic — that  is  the  spectacle  which  France  pre- 
sents to-day.  It  is  hard  to  say  whether  any  nation  ever  before 
burdened  itself  with  such  a  load  of  shame. 

"  The  quantity  of  lies  which  France,  official  and  unofficial, 
has  been  manufacturing  for  us  since  the  month  of  July,  in  the 
full  knowledge  that  they  are  lies,  is  something  frightful  and 
absolutely  unprecedented.  Perhaps  it  is  not  much  after  all  in 
comparison  with  the  immeasurable  heaps  of  illusions  and  un- 
conscious lies  which  have  so  long  been  in  circulation  among  the 
French.  Their  men  of  genius,  who  are  recognised  as  such  in 
all  departments  of  literature,  are  apparently  of  opinion  that 
France  outshines  other  nations  in  a  superhuman  wisdom, 
that  she  is  the  New  Zion  of  the  whole  world,  and  that  the 
literary  productions  of  the  French  for  the  last  fifty  years, 
however  insipid,  unhealthy,  and  often,  indeed  devilish,  contain 
a  real  Evangel,  rich  in  blessing  for  all  the  children  of  men." 

The  article  concludes  in  these  words:  "We  believe  tlaat  Bis- 
marck will  take  as  much  of  Alsace,  and  of  Lorraine  too,  as  he 
chooses,  and  that  it  will  be  the  better  for  him,  the  better  for  us, 


The  Condition  of  Paris.  247 

the  better  for  all  the  world  except  France,  aiid  the  better  in  the 
long  run  for  France  herself.  Through  large  and  quiet  measures 
M.  von  Bismarck  is  aiming  %vith  eminent  ability  at  one  single 
object — the  well-Vjeing  of  Germany  and  of  the  world.  If  the 
large-hearted,  peace-loving,  enlightened,  and  earnest  people  of 
Oermany  grow  into  one  nation,  and  Germany  become  mistress 
of  the  continent  in  place  of  France,  which  is  light-hearted,  am- 
bitious, quarrelsome,  and  over-exciteable,  it  will  be  the  most 
momentous  event  of  the  present  day,  and  all  the  world  must 
hope  that  it  may  soon  come  about." 

It  is  an  admirable  article,  and  we  shall  bring  it  to  t)ie  know- 
ledge of  our  friends  in  Versailles  through  the  Moniteur. 

The  Chief  stayed  a  long  time  in  bed  to-day,  and  it  was  not  till 
the  afternoon  that  he  was  able  to  transact  business.  He  was 
also  absent  at  dinner.  Hatzfeld  told  us  there  that  he  had 
talked  with  several  of  the  diplomatists  who  had  just  come  in 
from  Paris — the  Russian  General-Adjutant,.  Prince  Wittgen- 
stein; the  English  Military  Plenipotentiary,  Claremont;  and  a 
Belgian.  They  left  Paris  yesterday  morning  early,  and  got  here 
this  afternoon  by  Villeneuve  Saint-Georges,  Avith  the  ponies 
and  some  other  horses.  Claremont,  Hatzfeld  said,  impressed 
him  as  s  sensible  man,  well  acquainted  with  the  condition  of 
thii^  in  Paris.  He  said  that  he  himself  had  not  had  to  eat 
any  horseflesh  or  to  endure  any  hardships,  that  all  the  cabs  and 
omnibuses  seemed  still  to  be  plying  in  the  city,  that  people 
were  still  playing  pieces  in  the  theatre  at  the  Poi-t^  Saint- 
Martin,  and  that  concerts  were  given  t\\'ice  a  week  at  the 
Opera  House.  According  to  his  account  the  gas  lamps  and 
■street  lanterns  are  still  burning,  though  only  one  in  five  of  the 
latter  is  lighted,  as  indeed  is  usual  here  in  Versailles  ;  and  the 
only  difference  is — and  it  is  only  among  the  well-to-do  classes — 
that  people  regularly  go  to  bed  about  ten  o'clock,  whereas  before 
the  city  was  blockaded  they  used  not  to  go  till  midnight.  The 
villages  inside  the  French  line  have  all  suffered  worse  than 
those  inside  ours.  He  supposes  they  may  have  provisions  for 
two  moiiths  yei.  Abeken,  on  the  other  hand,  had  learned 
from  Voigts-Rhetz  that  Moblots  had  come  out  in  crowds  to 
surrender.  They  had  been  fired  upon,  but  a  number  of  them, 
not  frightened  by  that,  had  forced  us  to  take  them  prisoners, 
and  when  they  were  examined  had  declared  that  they  had  suf- 
fered great  misery,  as  only  the  regular  troops  were  properly 
^supplied  with  food. 


248        Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War. 

L.  came  in  after  eight,  and  claimed  to  know  "  on  excellent 
authority,"  as  usual,  that  the  King  did  not  care  for  the  as- 
sumption of  the  Imperial  dignity,  and  that  the  arrival  of  the 
thirty-man  deputation  from  the  Reichstag  especially  had  not 
been  to  his  liking.  He-  is  supposed  to  have  said,  "  I  dare  say  I 
owe  this  dignity  after  all  to  Herr  Lasker." 

Afterwards  I  w:rote  an  article  for  the  press,  by  the  Chief's 
direction,  pointing  out  that  we  are  now  fighting,  not  merely 
against  France,  but  against  those  cosmopolitan  Red  Republicans 
— Garibaldi,  Mazzini,  (who  is  now  with  Garibaldi,  acting  as  his 
adviser)  and  the  Polish,  Spanish,  and  Danish  members  of  the 
same  party.  The  object  for  which  this  agreeable  company  is 
striving  is  set  forth  in  a  letter  from  the  son  of  the  prefect  Or- 
dinaire, who  describes  himself  as  an  officer  of  Garibaldi's  gen- 
eral steff.  This  letter,  dated  Autun,  November  16,  and 
directed  to  the  editor  of  the  journal  Bights  of  Man,  says  : 

"From  the  postmark  you  will  see  where  we  are — in  the  worst 
den  of  priestcraft  in  all  France.  Autun  is  one  of  the  chief 
centres  of  the  monarchical  reaction.  R  looks  more  like  an  im- 
mense monastery  than  a  town,  with  its:  great  blank  walls  and  its 
iron-barred  widows,  behind  which  monks  of  every  description 
are  praying  and  conspiring  for  the  true  cause  and  its  right 
divine.  Everywhere  in  the  streets  the  red  shirt  comes  in  con- 
tact with  the  priest's  black  gown ;  and  even  the  shop  people, 
like  everything  else  in  the  place,  have  a  mystic  look  of  having 
been  saturated  with  holy  water.  We  are  on  the  'Index'  here, 
and  slanderous  stories  are  told  about  us — too  many  for  even 
the  waters  of  the  flood  to  wash  away.  Every  breach  of  discip- 
line— and  some  are  unavoidable  with  volunteers  and  fr^e  com- 
panions— is  at  once  represented  as  a  great  crime.  An  outrage 
worthy  of  death  will  be  manufactured  out  of  nothing.  The 
mountain,  of  course,  brings  forth  its  moxise,  but  the  bad  effect 
produced  on  public  opinion  remains,  notwithstanding. 

"  Could  you  believe  iti  The  authorities  themselves  aggravate 
the  situation.  The  authorities  make  themselves,  I  hope  unwit- 
tingly, the  echo  of  these  slanderers,  and  regard  us  with  evil  eyes, 
so  that  our  army  almost  seems  to  be  considered  by  our  fellow 
citizens  a  band  of  robbers.  Yes,  believe  me,  the  Monarchists 
of  every  sliade  have  intermitted  none  of  their  pernicious  activi- 
ties, and  hate  us  because  we  have  sworn  to  leave  none  of  those 
market-place  stalls  standing  from  which  Kings  and  Emperors 
dictate  their  commands  and  caprices  to  the  nations.      Yes,  we 


The  United  States  of  Europe.  241> 

proclaim  it  openly,  we  are  the  soldiers  of  the  Revolution  ;  and,. 
I  will  add,  not  merely  of  the  French,  but  of  the  CosTnopolitan- 
revolution.  Italians,  Spaniards,  Poles  and  Hungarians  under- 
stood, when  they  hurried  here  to  fight  under  the  banner  of 
France,  that  they  were  in  reality  defending  the  Universal  Re- 
public." 

"  The  significance  of  the  struggle  is  already  clear.  It  is  be- 
tween the  principle  of  Divine  right,  of  authority,  of  monarchy, 
and  that  of  the  sovereignty  of  the  people,  of  civilisation,  ahd 
of  freedom.  The  Fatherland  vanishes  in  the  presence  of  the 
Republic. 

"We  are  citizens  of  the  world,  and  we  are  ready,  each  accord- 
in  to  his  capacity,  to  fight  to  the  death  for  the  realisation  of 
the  grand  idea  of  the  United  States  of  Europe,  the  brotherhood 
of  all  free  peoples.  The  monarchical  reactionists  know  this, 
and  their  enmity  as  good  as  doubles  the  Prussian  armies.  At 
our  breasts  we  have  the  bayonets  of  the  foreigner,  and  treachery 
at  our  backs  !  Why  are  all  these  ancient  officials  not  chased 
away  1  Why  are  these  former  generals  of  the  Empire,  with 
their  persons  more  or  less  decorated  \\-ith  their  plumes,  their 
orders,  and  their  gold  lace,  not  one  and  all  cashiered  without 
mercy  1  Can  the  Government  of  the  National  Defence  not  see 
that  they  will  betray  it ;  that  with  their  hypocritical  manoeuvres, 
their  shameful  capitulations,  their  incomprehensible  retreats, 
they  are  preparing  the  way  for  a  Bonapartist  restoration,  or  at 
least  for  an  Orleans  or  a  Bourbon  ascending  the  throne  1 

"  Let  the  government  which  has  undertaken  to  liberate  the 
soil  of  our  country  polluted  by  the  hordes  of  the  foreigner,  be- 
ware. Let  it  rise  to  the  height  of  its  own  mission.  Living  in 
an  epoch  like  ours,  in  the  frighful  circumstances  in  which  we 
stand,  it  is  not  enough  to  be  an  honest  man.  One  must  show 
some  energy,  and  must  not  loose  his  head,  or  drown  himself  in 
a  glass  of  water.  Let  the  Cremieuxs,  the  Glais-Bizoins,  the 
Fourichons,  recollect  how  men  acted  in  1792  and  1793.  To- 
day we  need  men  of  the  convention,  a  Danton,  a  Robespierre. 
Up,  gentlemen,  and  room  for  the  Revolution  !  She  alone  can 
help  us.  Great  crises  must  be  met  by  great  means  and  great 
measures. 

"  Let  us  never  forget  that  internal  organisation  must  contri- 
bute to  our  defence  against  the  outside  world.  It  is  a  great 
matter  to  have  nothing  to  trouVjle  us  when  we  march  against 
the  enemy ;  it  is  worth  something  to  know  that  we  are  sus- 


250        Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War. 

tained  by  Republican  officials,  and  that  the  army  is  not  in  the 
hands  of  men  who  are  ready  to  sell  it.  What  signify  the  for- 
malities of  a  military  hierarchy?  Choose  your  generals  if 
necessary,  from  the  ranks  of  your  soldiers,  and  especially  from 
among  your  young  soldiers.  Infuse  a  little  fresh  blood  into 
the  veins  of  the  Republic,  and  the  Republic  will  rescue  herself 
and  redeem  all  Europe  from  the  yoke  of  the  tyrants.  Rise  !  A 
single  eSort,  and  long  live  the  Universal  Republic  !  " 

The  Fatherland  vanishes  in  the  presence  of  the  Republic  ! 
Use  the  same  great  weapons  as  Danton  and  Robespierre  did  ; 
cut  off  everybody's  head  who  differs  from  you  in  politics  or  re- 
lioion  ;  let  the  guillotine  be  declared  a  permanent  institution. 
Generals  Chanzy,  Bourbaki,  Faidherbe,  "Vinoy,  Ducrot  and 
Trochu,  are  to  be  sent  about  their  business,  and  men  from  the 
ranks  to  take  their  places.  This  is  what  is  preached  by  the  son 
of  a  prefect,  in  the  department  of  the  Doubs,  an  officer  of  Gari- 
baldi's general  staff  I  wonder  how  many  will  say  Amen  to 
these  proposals  when  they  read  them  a  few  days  after  this  in 
the  Moniteur. 

Tuesday f  December  IS. — The  Chief's  health  is  a  trifle  better, 
but  he  still  feel^  himself  very  limp.  At  breakfast  the  Chan- 
cellor's possible  retirement  was  talked  over ;  we  amused  our- 
selves over  a  Lasker  Ministry,  saying  that  "  Lasker  would  turn 
out  a  kind  of  Ollivier,"  and,  half  joking,  half  serious,  we  dis- 
cussed Delbriick  as  the  probable  Chancellor  of  the  Confeder- 
ation, "a  very  sensible  man,  but  no  politician."  I  thought  it 
inconceivable  that  they  coulcl  allow  the  Chief  to  retire,  even  at 
his  own  request.  The  gentlemen  thought  it  not  impossible.  I 
said  that  if  things  here  went  on  four  weeks  longer  they  would 
be  forced  to  recall  him.  Bucher  doubted  whether  in  such  a 
case  he  would  come  back,  and  said  positively  that  from  his 
knowledge  of  him  he  felt  sure  that  he  would  never  come  back, 
if  he  once  retired.  He  enjoyed  Varzin  far  too  thoroughly 
when  he  was  away  from  business  and  bother  of  every  kind. 
He  was  happiest  in  the  woods  and  in  the  country.  "  Believe 
mo,"  the  Countess  had  once  said  to  him,  "a  wruke  (a  turnip) 
interests  him  more  than  all  your  politics,"  a  mot  which  one 
must  accept  with  some  reserve,  and  consider  applicable  only  in 
his  occasional  moods. 

At  half-past  two  I  went  to  him  for  business.  He  desired 
.  me  to  direct  people's  attention  to  the  King  of  Holland's  per- 
plexity about  new  IMinisters.  and  to  point  out  that  it  was  a 


England  and  the  Black  Sea.  251 

consequence  of  the  parliamentary  system  which  forces  the 
King's  advisers  to  retire,  wliatever  may  be  the  circumstances, 
when  the  majority  of  the  representatives  of  the  people  are 
against  them  on  any  single  question.  He  remarked,  "I  re- 
member that,  when  I  was  Minister,  these  people  were  havino' 
their  twentieth  or  twenty -first  ministry  since  the  introduction 
of  their  parliamentary  system.  When  people  hold  stri  :tly  to 
the  principle  that  the  Minister  must  be  sent  about  his  business 
if  the  majority  goes  against  him,  too  many  politicians  get  used 
up  ;  they  have  then  to  go  to  the  second-raters.  In  the  end 
there  is  nobody  left  willing  to  devote  himself  to  the  kind  of 
work.  The  moral  is,  either  that  the  salary  of  ministerial 
officers  ought  to  be  raised,  or  that  people  must  a  little  relax  the 
severity  of  parliamentary  practice." 

The  Chief  drove  out  about  three,  after  having  Russel  again 
with  him,  and  he  also  came,  God  be  praised !  to  dinner  with 
us,  where  he  di-ank  a  little  beer  and  a  couple  of  glasses  of 
Vichy  water  with  champagne.  We  had  turtle-soup,  and,  among 
other  delicacies,  a  wild  boar's  head  and  a  coynpote  of  raspberry 
jelly  and  mustard,  which  was  excellent.  The  Minister  said, 
*'  Things  were  very  bad  with  me  this  time.  I  was  troubled  with 
varicose  veins  in  1866  also.  I  lay  full-length  on  the  bed,  and 
had  to  answer  letters  of  a  very  desperate  sort — very  distract- 
ing for  me— with  a  pencil.  They  "  (he  meant  the  Austrians) 
"  then  wanted  to  disarm  on  the  northern  frontier,  but  to  keep 
tlieir  armies  together  farther  down,  and  I  had  to  convince  them 
that  that  would  not  do  for  us  at  all." 

He  then  spoke  of  his  negotiations  with  Russel,  and  of 
Gortchakors  demands.  "The  people  in  London,"  he  said, 
"  don't  want  to  return  a  straightforward  '  Yes '  to  the  proposal 
to  restore  to  Russia  and  Turkey  the  Black  Sea,  and  complete 
sovereignty  over  their  own  coast  lines.  They  are  afraid  of 
public  opinion  in  England  ;  and  Russia  returns  perpetually  to 
the  idea  that  some  sort  of  equivalent  should  be  offered.  He 
asked,  for  instance,  whether  we  could  not  adhere  simpliciter  to 
the  agreement  of  April  16,  1856.  I  told  him  that  Germany 
had  no  real  interest  in  it.  Or  whether  we  might  not  pledge 
ourselves  to  remain  neutral,  if  it  came  to  a  conflict  ?  I  said  I 
was  no  friend  of  conjectural  politics,  under  which  class  such  a 
pledge  would  come ;  and  that  it  would  all  depend  on  the  cir- 
cumstances. At  present  we  saw  no  reason  to  trouble  ourselves 
about  it.     That  ought  to  be  enough  for  him.     For  the  rest,  I 


252        Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War. 

was  not  of  ipinion  that  gratitude  was  without  its  place  in  poli- 
tics. The  present  Emperor  had  always  shown  himself  friendly 
and  well  disposed  to  us ;  while  Austria  had  never  shown  her- 
self trustworthy,  and  had  occasionally  been  very  uncertain.  As 
for  England,  he  knew  well  enough  how  much  we  had  to  thank 
her  for.  The  friendliness  of  the  Emperor,  I  said,  was  a  relic 
of  old  relationships  which  originated  partly  in  the  family  con- 
nection ;  but  it  rested  also  on  the  recognition  of  the  fact  that 
our  interests  were  not  in  collision  with  his.  Nobody  knew  how 
that  might  be  in  future,  and  it  was  better  not  to  talk  about  it." 
..."  Our  position,  I  represented,  was  difi'erent  from  what  it 
'  had  been.  We  were  the  only  power  that  had  reason  to  be  con- 
tent ;  we  had  no  call  to  do  anybody  a  favor  when  we  did  not 
know  whether  he  would  do  us  a  service  in  return." 

"  He  came  back  to  his  equivalent,  and  asked  me  whether 
there  was  nothing  I  could  propose  to  him.  I  suggested  the 
opening  of  th.3  Dardanelles  and  the  Black  Sea  to  all  nations. 
It  would  probably  be  agreeable  to  Russia,  as  it  would  give  her 
access  to  the  Mediterranean  from  the  Black  Sea ;  and  to  Turkey, 
as  she  would  then  have  her  friends  close  to  her ;  and  to  the 
Americans,  who  would  lose  one  of  the  reasons  which  draw  them 
towards  Russia,  in  the  realization  of  their  wish  for  the  free- 
dom of  all  the  water  highways  of  the  world.  He  seemed  to 
take  that  in."  "  The  Russian?,"  added  the  Chancellor,  "  ought 
not  to  have  been  so  modest  in  their  requirements ;  if  they  had 
asked  for  more,  they  would  have  had  had  no  difficuly  in  getting 
what  they  want  about  the  Black  Sea." 

The  conversation  then  turned  on  the  four  principles  of  the 
new  law  of  the  ocean  :  no  fitting  out  of  privateers ;  no  seizure 
of  goods  except  contraband  of  war  ;  that  a  blockade  is  only  to 
be  valid  when  it  is  effective,  and  so  on.  One  of  these  had  been 
flagrantly  infringed,  the  Chief  said,  by  the  French  when  they 
bxirned  German  vessels ;  and  he  closed  our  discussion  of  the 
subject,  saying,  "  Yes,  we  must  see  how  we  can  get  rid  of  all 
this  nonsense." 

Wednesday,  December  1^. — In  the  morning,  by  the  Chief's 
orders,  I  telegraphed  the  occupation  of  Blois  Hy  our  troops  and 
the  capitulation  of  Montmedy.  The  Centralists  in  Germany 
are  still  expressing  their  disatisfaction  with  the  convention  with 
Bavaria. 

The  Chief  dined  with  us,  and  his  guest  was  Count  Holnstein. 
The  conversation  did  not  turn  upon  politics.     The  Minister 


A  Country  Squire  in  Pomerania.  253 

talked  in  the  kindliest  and  most  good-humored  fashion  of  all 
sorts  of  things.  He  said,  for  instance,  that  as  a  young  man  he 
had  been  a  fast  runner  and  a  capital  jumper,  whilst  his  sons 
had  unusual  strength  in  the  muscles  of  their  arms.  He  would 
not  like  to  try  them  in  a  stand-up  wrestle.  He  then  brought 
out  the  case  with  the  gold  pen  presented  to  him  by  Bissinger, 
the  jeweller,  to  show  to  his  guest,  and  he  told  us  that  the 
countess  had  written  to  know  the  truth  about  it,  thinking  it 
might  turn  out  like  the  story  about  the  clown  at  Meaux, — a 
story  which  I  now  heard  for  the  first  time,  about  the  newborn 
chUd  of  a  French  soldier  who  had  recently  fallen,  being  de- 
posited one  morning  on  the  Chief's  bed,  and  which  was,  of 
course,  an  invention  of  the  newspapers.  Somebody  said  that 
the  deputation  from  the  Reichstag  had  got  as  far  as  Strassburg, 
and  would  be  here  the  day  after  to-morrow.  The  Chancellor 
remarked,  "  Then  we  must  think  seriously  what  answer  we  are 
to  give  them.  Simson  will  manage  the  thing  very  well.  He 
has  several  times  before  had  similar  thhigs  to  do  on  the  first 
deputation  about  the  Emperor  and  at  the  HohenzoUernburg. 
He  likes  to  speak,  and  on  such  occasions  speaks  well  and  agree- 
ably. Abeken  remarked  that  the  deputy  Lowe  had  said  that 
he  had  gone  through  this  experience  once  before,  and  had  the 
opportunity  afterwards  of  reflecting  on  the  matter,  far  from 
Madrid,  "  Really,  was  he  there  in' 1849  V  asked  the  Minister. 
*'Yes,"  said  Bucher,  "he  was  President  of  the  Reichstag." 
"So,  then,"  said  the  Chief,  "it  was  not  on  account  of  the  Em- 
peror's journey  that  he  had  to  remain  away  from  Madrid,  but 
because  of  the  trip  to  Stuttgart,  which  was  a  very  difierent 
affair."  At  that  time,  according  to  him,  he  was  first  in  the 
HohenzoUernburg,  where  all  the  branches  of  his  family  had 
separate  apartments,  then  in  another  old  castle  in  Pomerania 
where  all  the  Dewitzes  had  formerly  had  a  right  of  tenancy, 
but  which  had  now  became  a  picturesque  ruin,  the  people  of  the 
next  small  town  having  made  use  of  it  for  a  quarry,  and  after 
that  again  with  the  owner  of  an  estate  in  the  country  who  had 
got  his  money  in  a  peculiar  way. 

"  He  had  always  been  apparently  in  difficulty  and  want,  at 
one  time  up  to  the  neck,  the  caterpillar  having  devoured  lus 
woods,  a  fire  having  burnt  down  a  good  part  of  them,  and  a 
hurricane  finally  levelling  many  of  his  trees  to  the  ground. 
The  wood  had  to  be  sold,  and  to  his  surprise  he  got  a  large  sum 
for  it — fifty  or  sixty  thousand  thalers — so  that  he  was  at  once 


254        Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War. 

set  on  his  feet  again.    It  had  never  occurred  to  him  that  he  had 
his  wood  to  cut  down." 

The  Chief  then  told  us  of  another  remarkable  person,  a 
neighbor  of  his  own.  "He  had  ten  or  twelve  properties, 
but  never  any  ready  money,  and  often  wanted  to  dispose  of 
something.  Whenever  he  gave  a  formal  breakfast  party,  he 
used  to  have  to  sell  one  of  his  properties.  At  last  there  were 
one  or  two  left.  His  peasants  bought  one  of  them  for  fifty- 
three  thousand  thalers.  They  paid  him  fifteen  thousand 
thalers  down,  and  immediately  sold  off  ship's  timber  to  the 
amount  of  twenty-two  thousand.  He  had  never  happened  to 
think  of  that." 

He  talked  next  of  the  dragoon  guards  in  Munich,  whose 
bigness  and  whole  style  had  given  him  the  impression  that  they 
must  be  capital  judges  of  beer.  Then  he  talked  of  his  son 
Count  Bill,  who  was  the  first  German  to  ride  into  Rouen. 
Some  one  said  he  would  be  a  conclusive  evidence  to  the  inhab- 
itants, that  our  troops  had  not  so  far  been  badly  looked  after,  and 
the  Chancellor  again  descanted  on  the  strength  of  his  "  lads." 
They  had  uncommon  strength  for  their  age,  he  said,  "  "though 
they  had  had  no  gymnastic  training.  I  had  no  feeling  against 
it  certainly,  but  there  had  been  no  opportunity  for  it  away  from 
home."  While  we  were  smoking  our  after-dinner  cigars,  he 
asked  whether  the  gentlemen  of  the  office  smoked.  "  They  all 
do  it,"  said  Abeken.  "  Well,"  he  said,  "  Engel  must  distribute 
the  Hamburg  cigars  among  them.  I  have  had  so  many  sent 
me  that  I  shall  still  have  some  left  to  take  home,  even  if  the 
war  lasts  another  twelvemonth." 

After  9  o'clock  in  the  morning  I  was  twice  called  to  the 
Minister.  A  note  was  sent  for  the  press  stating  that  Tarbe, 
the  editor  of  the  Gaulois,  which  now  appears  in  Brussels,  got 
out  of  Paris  and  through  the  Prussian  lines  by  purchasing  his 
passport  from  a  Swiss  for  10,000  francs.  "  Say  nothing  about 
the  other  Swiss  (who  we  are  informed  sold  his  pass  through  the 
circle  of  our  outposts  to  another  Parisian  for  6,000  francs),'* 
said  the  Chief.  "  It  might  look  as  if  we  wanted  to  worry 
Switzerland,  which  we  have  no  intention  of  doing." 

Thursday,  December  15. — The  weather  was  mild.  Hardly 
any  firing  from  the  forts.  Counts  Frankenberg  and  Lehndorf 
were  our  guests  at  the  beginning  of  dinner.     Half  an  hour 

afterwards  Prince  Pless  came  in.     The  Minister  was  extremely 

chatty  and  good-humored.     We  talked  first  ab  3ut  the  question 


The  Reichstag  and  the  Gerraan  Empire.       255 

of  the  day,  vhen  the  bombardment  was  to  begin,  and  the  Chief 
said  he  thought  probably  in  eight  or  ten  days  from  now,  but 
that  it  would  have  little  efiect  for  a  few  weeks,  as  the  Parisians 
had  had  time  to  make  their  preparations  to  meet  it.  Franken- 
berg  said  that  People  in  Berlin,  especially  in  .the  Reichstag, 
spoke  of  nothing  so  much  as  of  the  reasons  which  had  made  us 
put  ofi  the  bombardment  of  Paris  so  lat«  as  this.  Everything 
else  fell  into  the  background.  "Well,"  said  the  Chief,  "now 
that  Roon  has  taken  the  thing  in  hand  something  will  be  done. 
There  are  a  thousand  wagons  on  the  way  here,  adequately 
horsed.  Ammunition  for  transport,  and  some  of  the  new 
mortars  have  already  arrived.  We  may  look  out  for  something 
soon  now." 

We  then  began  to  talk  of  the  way  in  which  the  restoration  of 
the  German  Empire  had  been  brought  before  the  Reichstag,  and 
several  of  those  present  said  that  in  their  opinion  it  had  not 
been  managed  as  they  should  have  liked.  The  thing  had  been 
badly  arranged.  The  Conservatives  had  had  no  notice  of  the 
intended  communication,  so  that  it  reached  them  just  as  they 
were  at  breakfast,  and  Windhorst,  with  his  usual  ability  in 
turning  circumstances  to  account,  had  been  quite  entitled  to 
remark  that  he  should  have  expected  more  sympathy  from  the 
Assembly.  "Yes,"  said  the  Chief,  "there  ought  to  have  been 
a  more  eflFective  mise  en  scene  for  such  a  piece.  .  .  .  Somebody 
might  have  come  forward  to  express  dissatisfaction  with  the 
Bavarian  Convention.  It  wanted  this,  and  omitted  that.  Then 
he  should  have  said,  that  if  any  cgunterpoise  for  these  defects 
could  be  found,  anything  in  which  the  unity  of  Germany  would 
find  adequate  expression,  it  might  alter  the  case,  and  at  that 
point  the  Emperor  might  have  been  brought  out."  "After  all, 
the  Emperor  has  more  power  than  many  fancy."  "  I  don't  for 
a  moment  deny  that  the  Bavarian  Convention  has  its  faults  and 
deficiencies ;  that  is  easUy  said  by  people  who  have  no  responsi- 
bility. How  would  it  have  been  if  I  had  refused  to  meet  the 
Bavarians  half-way,  and  nothing  had  come  of  the  whole  affair  ? 
It  is  impossible  to  realise  the  difficulties  we  should  have  got 
into,  so  that  I  was  frightfully  anxious  about  the  freedom  from 
prejudices  of  the  centralistic  party  among  the  deputies  of  the 
Reichstag."  "  This  is  the  first  time  for  many  a  day  that  I  have 
had  a  couple  of  hours'  sound  and  satisfying  sleep.  I  used  at 
first  to  lie  awake  full  of  all  sorts  of  thoughts  and  troubles.  Tlien 
Varzin  woidd  suddenly  come  up  before  me,  perfectly  distinct  in 


"256        Bismarck  in  the  FrciTico-German  War. 

the  minutest  particulars,  like  a  great  picture  with  even  all  its 
colors  fresh — the  gi-een  trees,  the  sunshine  on  the  stems,  the 
blue  sky  above.  I  saw  every  individual  tree.  I  struggled  to 
shake  the  thing  off,  but  it  came-  back  and  worried  me,  and  when 
at  last  I  ceased  to  see  it,  other  things  came  in— reports,  notes, 
despatches,  and  so  on,  till  I  fell  over  about  morning." 

The  conversation  then  turning  on  the  fair  sex  in  this  country, 
the  Chief  said,  "  I  have  travelled  a  good  deal  through  France, 
during  peace,  too,  and  I  don't  recollect  that  I  ever  saw  anywhere 
a  single  nice-looking  country  girl,  but  I  have  seen  frightfully 
ugly  creatures  often.  I  believe  that  there  are  a  few,  only  the 
pretty  ones  go  off  to  Paris  to  make  their  market  there."  To- 
wards the  end  we  talked  of  the  enormous  destruction  the  war 
had  entailed  on  France,  and  the  Minister  said,  "  I  can  imagine 
that  the  country  might  become  empty  and  masterless,  and-  that 
after  the  emigration  of  the  people  we  might  have  to  let  the 
estates  out  to  deserving  Pomeranians  and  Wesfcphalians." 

In  the  evening,  at  tea,  Bucher  was  at  first  alone  with  me ; 
then  Keudell  came  in,  who  was  a  good  deal  troubled,  and  anxious 
about  Gambetta's  gigantic  le-vies,  which  were  estimated,  as  he 
had  heard  from  the  general  staff,  at  1,300,000  men.  He  had 
been  told  also  by  Moltkes  people,  that  we  were  to  get  80,000 
or  90,000  new  troops,  but  he  thought  we  ought  to  have  had 
half  a  million.  What  would  happen  if  the  French  with  300,000 
men  from  the  south-east  were  to  fall  on  the  thin  line  of  our 
communications  -with  Germany  1  '  We  might  then  easily  be 
compelled  "even  to  give  up  Paris.  Certainly  this  is  too  melan- 
choly a  view  of  the  situation. 


What  the  French  say  of  the  Ge'rmans.         257 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

OHAUDORDT  AND  FACTS — OFFICERS  BREAKING  THEIR  PAROLE 
— FRENCH  MISCONSTRUCTIONS — THE  CROWN  PRINCE  ENTER- 
TAINED BY  THE  CHIEF. 


FRIDAY,  December  16. — Weather  mild  and  sky  clouded. 
In  the  morning  I  -wrote  several  articles  on  Chaudordy's  circu- 
lar despatch  about  the  barbarous  way  in  which  we  are  repre- 
sented to  be  carrying  on  the  war.     My  line  was  as  follows  : 

"  To  the  slanders  which  the  French  press  has  been  circulat- 
ing for  months  in  order  to  excite  public  opinion  ag^ainst  us,  we 
have  now  to  add  an  official  document  emanating  from  the  Pro- 
visional Government  of  France,  the  object  of  which  is  to  induce 
foreign  courts  and  cabinets  to  take  part  against  us  by  exaggera- 
ted and  distorted  statements  of  our  proceedings  in  this  war. 
An  official  of  the  Ministry  of  Foreign  Affairs,  M.  de  Chaudor- 
dy,  has  taken  occasion  to  complain'  of  us  in  a  circular  letter  to 
the  neutral  powers.  Let  us  look  at  the  main  points  of  his  in- 
dictment, let  us  then  state  the  real  facts  of  the  cases  he  de- 
scribes, and  leave  the  world  to  judge  whether  the  French  or  we 
are  more  open  to  the  reproach  of  barbarism. 

"  He  asserts  that  our  requisitions  are  immoderate  and  that 
we  demand  from  the  towns  and  communes  which  have  fallen 
into  our  hands  exorbitant  contributions.  We  are  said  even  to 
have  laid  hold  of  the  private  property  of  individuals.  We  are 
accused  of  savagely  wrecking  and  burning  down  towns  and  vil- 
lages where  the  inhabitants  have  fought  against  us  or  even  been 
helpful  in  the  slightest  way  to  the  French  who  are  defending  their 
country.  Our  accuser  says,  '  To  punish  a  town  for  the  offence 
of  a  single  inhabitant  whose  sole  crime  was  that  he  rose  against 
the  foreign  invader,  superior  officers  have  ordered  it  to  be  set 
on  fire  and  plundered,  thus  shamefully  abusing  the  unquestion- 
ing discipline  exacted  from  their  soldiers.     Every  house  where 


258        Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War. 

a  Franc-tireur  had  hidden  or  had  a  meal  has  been  burnt  down. 
What  becomes  of  private  property?'  The  circular  goes  on  to 
say  that  in  bombarding  open  towns  we  have  introduced  a  prac- 
tice which  has  no  precedent  in  history.  Family,  among  other 
outrages  of  which  we  have  been  guilty,  we  have  taken  hostages 
with  us  in  the  railway  trains  to  secure  ourselves  against  the 
rails  being  lifted  and  other  damage  and  injury  done  to  the 
lines. 

"  We  answer  these  charges  thus ;  If  M.  de  Chaudordy  had 
known  anything  of  war,  instead  of  complaining  of  the  sacririces 
our  operations  require  from  the  French  population,  he  would 
have  been  astonished  at  our  comparative  reasonableness.  The 
German  troops  respect  private  property  everywhere,  but  it  is 
not  to  be  wondered  at  if,  after  forced  marches  or  hard  fights 
where  they  have  been  exposed  to  cold  and  hunger,  they  insist 
on  getting  lodged  as  comfortably  as  possible  and  on  requiring 
of  the  inhabitants  whatever  is  of  immediate  necessity — food, 
drink,  and  firing,  for  instance — or  if  they  take  them,  in  cases 
where  the  inhabitants  have  fled.  There  is  evidence,  that  so 
far  from  attacking  private  property,  as  M.  de  Chaudordy  says 
they  do,  they  have  often  done  the  very  opposite,  and  have,  at  the 
risk  of  their  own  lives,  rescued  for  the  owners  objects  of  special 
or  artistic  value,  exposed  to  injury  from  the  French  guns.  We 
are  charged  with  having  burned  down  villages.  Has  our  ac- 
cuser never  heard  of  the  reason  :  of  the  Francs-tireurs,  assass- 
in-like, firing  at  our  men  in  them,  of  the  inhabitants  helping 
these  murderers  and  rendering  them  every  possible  assistance  ? 
Has  he  not  heard  how  the  Francs-tireurs,  who  went  recently 
from  Fontaines  to  Lyons,  declared  loudly  and  openly  that  the 
object  of  their  march  was  to  pay  visits  to  those  houses  in  the 
district,  the  plundering  of  which  was  worth  their  while  1  Can 
he  give  a  single  authenticated  instance  of  horrors  committed  by 
our  soldiers  like  those  practiced  on  them  by  the  Turcos  and  the 
free  companions  of  the  French  1  Have  they  cut  off  the  ears 
and  noses  of  their  enemies,  either  dead  or  alive,  as  the  French 
did  to  the  German  soldiers  at  Coulours  on  the  ^Oth  of  Novem- 
ber 1  Eight  hundred  German  prisoners  should  have  been  brought 
into  Lille  on  the  11th  of  December.  There  was  only  two  hun- 
dred. Many  of  them  were  severely  wounded,  but  instead  of 
offering  them  assistance  the  people  pelted  them  with  snowballs, 
and  cried  for  the  soldiers  to  run  their  bayonets  into  them.  The 
number  of  times  the  French  have  fired  on  flags  of  truce  is  un- 


The  Mode  of  War  of  the  Francs-iireurs.       250 

precedented,  and  thte  following  incident,  though  all  but  incredi- 
ble, is  perfectly  authenticated.  On  the  2nd  of  December  Un- 
der-Sergeant-major  Steinmetz  von  Villers  wi-ote  a  letter  to  his 
lieutenant  in  Mirecourt  by  the  express  request  of  an  officer  of 
the  Garibaldians,  notifying  that  if  our  troops  allowed  reprisals 
against  Vettel  or  any  place  in  the  neighborhood,  he  would  cut 
off  the  ears  of  fourteen  Prussians  who  had  fallen  into  the  hands 
of  the  free  companions. 

"  We  have  often  refused  to  treat  free  companions  as  soldiers, 
but  only  when,  by  following  the  principles  recommended  to  the 
country  people  of  the  department  of  Cote  d'Or  by  the  Prefect 
Luce  Villiard  on  the  21st  November,  they  failed  to  conduct 
themselves  as  such.  He  told  them,  '  The  country  does  not  ask 
you  to  embody  yourselves  in  companies  and  march  against  the 
enemy.  It  expects  you,  every  morning,  to  pick  out  three  or 
four  men  to  go  to  any  place  which  the  character  of  the  ground 
renders  suitable  and  fire  at  the  Prussians  wherever  they  can  do 
so  without  danger.  Above  all  things,  fire  at  the  enemy's 
cavaliy,  and  give  their  horses  up  at  the  chief  place  of  arron- 
disseraent.  I  shall  pay  you  a  reward  (the  wages  of  assassina- 
tion) and  shall  publish  your  heroic  conduct  in  all  the  news- 
papers of  the  department  and  in  the  Journal  officieV 

"  We  have  bombarded  open  to^vns,  such  as  Orleans,  but  is 
M.  de  Chaudordy  not  aware  that  at  the  time  they  were  in  the 
occupation  of  the  enemy  1  Has  he  forgotten  that  the  FrencL 
bombarded  the  open  towns  of  Saarbriicken  and  Kehl  ?  Fin- 
ally, about  the  hostages,  who  are  taken  with  our  railway  trains, 
they  accompany  us,  not  to  interfere  with  the  heroic  deeds  of  the 
French,  but  to  prevent  malignant  crimes.  The  railways  caiTy 
other  things  besides  soldiers,  ammxmition,  and  war  materials. 
They  are  not  a  mere  means  of  war,  assailable,  like  others,  by 
armed  violence.  Crowds  of  wounded,  doctors,  nurses  for  the 
sick,  and  other  altogether  peaceable  persons,  are  conveyed  on 
them.  Is  any  peasant  or  free  companion  to  be  allowed  to  tear 
up  the  rails  or  lay  stones  across,  so  as  at  one  blow  to  endanger 
the  lives  of  hundreds  of  these  people  ?  Let  the  French  see  to 
the  safety  of  their  trains,  and  their  hostages  will  only  be  taken 
little  pleasure  excureions,  or,  if  they  prefer  it,  we  shall  make 
Germans  accompany  them  to  re-establish  order  along  the  lines. 
We  need  say  no  more  in  answer  to  M.  de  Chaudordy's  com- 
plaints. The  European  cabinets  know  the  humane  spirit  in 
which  we  carry  on  war,  and  people  here  will  have  little  difficulty 


260        Bismarch  in  the  Franco-German  War. 

in  rating  the  assertions  of  our  French  accuser  at  their  real 
worth, 

"  After  all,  war  is  war.  Silk  gloves  are  not  in  place,  and 
perhaps  the  iron  gloves  with  which  we  have  had  to  handle 
them  would  have  been  worn  less  frequently  had  the  Govern- 
ment of  National  Defence  not  passionately  proclaimed  a  peo- 
ple's war,  which  inevitably  leads  to  greater  cruelties  than  one 
between  regular  armies." 

In  the  afternoon  I  again  visited  the  magnificent  bronze 
deities  behind  the  chateau,  and  the  moss-grown  marble  statues 
on  the  main  road  through  the  park.  Besides  Bohlen,  who  was 
still  sick,  we  missed  at  dinner  Hatzfeld,  who  had  turned  un- 
well, and  Keudell,  who  had  been  commanded  to  dine  with  the 
King.  This  time  Count  Holnstein  and  Prince  Putbus  were 
our  invited  guests.  The  conversation  turned  first  on  the  Bav- 
arian Convention,  and  Holnstein  expected  that  it  would  be 
approved  by  the  second  Chamber,  in  which  a  two-thirds  majority 
is  necessary,  as  it  is  already  known  that  only  about  forty  votes 
are  to  be  recorded  against  it.  It  is  also  as  good  as  certain  that 
it  will  not  be  rejected  by  the  Chamber  of  the  Royal  Council- 
lors. The  Chief  said,  •' Thlinger  will  surely  be  for  it."  Holn- 
stein said,  "  I  believe  so,  for  he  voted  for  our  taking  part  in  the 
war."  "  Yes,  said  the  Minister,  "  he  is  one  of  the  honorable 
Particularists,  but  there  are  others  who  have  different  ends  in 
view."  Holnstein  said  "  Certainly  some  of  the  patriots  have 
shown  clearly  enough  that  they  leave  out  the  "  For  God  and 
Fatherland,"  and  hold  only  by  the  "  With  the  help  of  God." 

Putbus  then  turned  the  conversation  to  the  approaching 
festival,  and  said  that  it  was  nice  that  the  men  in  the  hospitals 
were  also  to  have  their  Christmas  trees.  A  collection  had  been 
made  for  that  object,  and  2500  francs  had  been  gathered. 
"  Pless  and  I  signed,"  he  went  on  to  say.  "  Then  it  was  taken 
to  the  Grand  Duke  of  Weimar,  who  subscribed  300  francs,  and 
the  Grand  Duke  of  Coburg  200."  "  Of  course  he  would  have 
to  subscribe  neither  more  than  Weimar  nor  less  than  Pless." 
Putbus  said  they  proposed  to  lay  the  list  befftre  his  Majesty, 
and  the  Chief  asked,  "  Won't  you  allow  me  to  have  a  share  in 
it?" 

It  was  then  mentioned  that  a  French  air-balloon  had  come 
down  at  Wetzlar,  and  that  Ducrot  was  said  to  be  in  it. 
"  Well,  he  will  be  shot  at  last,"  said  Putbus.  "  No,"  said  the 
Chief,  '*  if  he  comes  before  a  council   of  war,  it  will  not  shoot 


A  Keiu  French  Loan.  261 

liiin,  but  a  coxincil  of  honor,  the  officers  tell  me,  would  condemn 
him  quickly  enough." 

"  Is  there  anything  else  new  in  military  matters  !  "  said  Put- 
bus.  The  Minister  said,  "  The  general  staff  may  know  some- 
thing, but  we  don't.  For  our  much  asking,  we  get  the  crumbs 
they  let  fall  to  us,  and  they  are  not  many."  Somebody  then 
said  he  had  heard  that  another  great  sortie  of  the  Parisians  was 
expected  to-morrow :  and  one  of  those  at  table  added,  that 
there  was  a  report  that  a  di-agoon  had  been  shot  on  the  road  to 
Meudon,  ai\d  an  officer  in  the  Avood  between  this  and  Ville 
d'Avray.  (Hence  the  notice  yesterday  ordering  that  no  civilian 
is  to  be  allowed  in  the  woods  near  the  town  between  three  in 
the  afternoon  and  nine  next  morning,  and  commanding  sentries 
and  patrols  to  fire  on  any  non-military  man  who  shows  himself 
there  during  these  hours.)  "They  appear  to  have  air-guns," 
the  Chief  conjectured.  "  Probably  they  are  the  old  poachers 
of  the  neighborhood." 

Finally  we  spoke  of  the  repoi't  that  the  Government  of  the 
N^ational  Defence  was  proposing  to  issue  a  loan,  and  the  Min- 
ister turned  to  me  and  said,  "  It  might  be  worth  whUe  to  point 
out  in  the  papers  the  risk  people  run  who  lend  their  money  to 
this  Government.  It  may  turn  out  that  its  loans  may  not  be 
taken  up  by  the  Government  with  which  we  conclude  peace, 
and  we  may  make  it  one  of  the  conditions.  You  might  get  that 
specially  into  the  English  and  the  Belgian  papers." 

After  we  left  table,  Abeken  told  me  that  Count  Holnsteia 
had  asked  who  I  was  (probably  because  I  am  now  the  only 
person  at  the  Chancellor's  table  in  civilian  costume)  ;  was  I, 
perhaps,  the  Minister's  personal  medical  attendant,  as  people 
called  me  Doctor  ?  In  the  evening  L.  told  us  that  a  Conserv- 
ative of  high  position,  who  sometimes  favored  him  with  com- 
munications, had  told  him  that,  in  his  circles,  people  were 
anxious  to  see  what  the  King  would  say  in  reply  to  the  depu- 
tation from  the  Reichstag.  He  was  supposed  not  to  like  their 
■\4sit,  for  it  was  only  the  first  German  Reichstag,  and  not  the 
North  German  Reichstag  which  would  be  entitled  to  offer  him 
the  Emperor's  crown.  (The  King  thinks  much  less  about  the 
Reichstag,  which  does  not  propose  to  offer  him  the  crown  on 
its  own  account,  but  to  come,  along  with  the  princes,  asking 
him  to  accept  it,  than  of  the  princes,  some  of  whom  have  not 
yet  sent  their  answer  to  the  proposition  of  the  King  of  Bav- 
aria.)    For  his  own  part,  L.'s  high-placed  Conservative  would 


262        Bismarck  in  the  Franco- German  War. 

rather  have  seen  the  King  made  Emperor  of  Prussia  (which  is 
^  matter  of  taste),  in  which  case  Prussia  would  merge  in  Ger- 
many, and  about  that  he  confesses  he  has  his  scruples.  L. 
told  us  also  that  the  Crown  Prince  was  indignant  at  certain 
■correspondents  in  the  German  papers,  who  had  compared  Chat- 
«audun  to  Pompeii,  and  had  otherwise  drawn  lively  pictures  of 
the  desolation  of  the  country  by  the  war.  I  suggested  to  L.  to 
work  on  the  subjects  :  "  A  new  French  Loan  "  and  "  Chaud- 
ordy  and  Garibaldi's  ear-slitters  "  for  a  Belgian  paper,  to  which 
he  has  access,  and  he  promised  to  do  so  to-morrow.  * 

After  tea  Wollmann  came  in,  and  told  us  that  the  deputation 
from  the  Reichstag  had  arrived,  and  that  Simson,  their  speaker, 
was  already  below  with  the  Chief,  who  would  clearly  explain  to 
him  the  King's  disinclination  to  receive  them  before  the  arrival 
of  letters  from  all  the  princes  agreeing  tt)  what  is  proposed. 
These  letters  have  to  be  sent  first  to  the  King  of  Bavaria,  and 
lie  forwards  them  to  our  King.  All  the  princes  are  believed  to 
Jiave  already  answered  in  the  affirmativo  by  telegram — only 
liippe  seems  not  yet  to  have  got  quite  to  the  bottom  of  his 
meditations.  To  account  for  this  delay,  probably  a  couple  of 
the  members  of  the  deputation  will  have  to  be  taken  ill.  W. 
tells  us  also  that  the  last  telegram,  notifying  the  passage  of  the 
Convention  with  Bavaria  through  the  Reichstag,  contained  the 
words :  "Even  the  district  magistrates  were  powerless  to  ob- 
struct the  ix^arch  of  universal  history." 

Saturday,  December  17. — During  breakfast  we  were  informed 
that  Vendome  had  been  occupied  by  our  troops.  The  secretar- 
ies told  us  that  when  he  is  dictating,  the  Chief's  custom  is  to 
walk  up  and  down  the  room,  every  now  and  then  giving  a 
knock  on  a  table,  a  chair,  or  a  commode,  sometimes  with  the 
tassel  of  his  dressing-gown,  which  he  keeps  swinging  about. 
He  seems  not  to  have  had  a  good  night  last  night,  for  about 
Jialf-past  eleven  he  had  not  breakfasted,  and  an  hour  afterwards 
he  was  still  not  to  be  spoken  with.  There  is  to  be  a  great 
council  to-day  of  the  military  authorities  at  the  King's  perhaps 
iibout  the  bombardment.  " 

Herr  von  Arnim-Krochlenburg,  the  brother-in-law  of  the 
Minister,  was  at  dinner,  a  gentleman  with  an  energetic  expres- 
sion of  countenance  and  a  full  reddish  beard,  apparently  going 
into  fifty.  The  Chief  was  in  excellent  humor,  but  the  conver- 
sation this  time  had  no  special  significance.  It  turned  chiefly 
on  the  bombardment  and  the  position  which  a  certain  party  at 


Broiun,  Jones  and  Rohiiison.  2G3 

head-quarters  had  taken  up  with  respect  to  it.  The  Chief  sud- 
denly asked  Bucher,  "  Have  you  a  pencil  and  paper  beside 
you  T  "Yes."  "Then  telegraph  "  (I  suppose  to  Delbriick) .  "The 
King  will  receive  the  deputation  from  the  Reichstag  abut  two 
o'clock  to-iiiorrow  afternoon.  Details  to  follow.'"  (Probably 
he  means  to  signify  to  them  that  he  is  prepared  to  assume  the 
dignity  of  Emperor,  as  they  wish  him  to  do,  but  that  he  con- 
siders that  he  owes  it  in  the  first  instance  to  the  requisition  from 
the  King  of  Bavaria  and  the  agreement  of  the  other  German 
princes  with  him,  and  that  that  agreement  has  not  yet  been 
formally  expressed  by  everybody. )  Arnim  said  he  could  eat 
no  more,  as  he  had  already  had  too  much  sausage,  and  the  Chief 
smiled  and  said,  "  Where  did  they  come  from  ]  I  hope  not 
from  Paris,  for  in  that  case  they  might  perhaps  contain  rat." 
We  learn,  in  fact,  that  they  are  now  very  short  of  fresh  meat 
there ;  and  it  is  said  that  in  some  parts  of  the  city  a  regular 
rat-market  has  been  established,  which  is  abiindantly  supplied 
with  good  stock  from  the  sewers. 

L.  came  in  after  eight  o'clock,  as  usual,  to  exchange  news. 
He  told  us  that  there  was  considerable  excitement  at  present 
among  the  English  in  Versailles.  Several  sons  of  Britain  who 
are  acting  here  as  newspaper  correspondents,  and  among  them 
a  Captain  Hosier,  had  had  the  misfortune,  on  a  journey  from 
this  to  Orleans,  to  be  arrested  as  spies  a^jd  kept  prisoners  in  an 
inn,  by  German  soldiers  who  did  not  understand  their  English. 
They  made  an  exception  in  favor  of  Hosier  only,  who  spoke 
some  German.  In  spite  of  their  correct  papers  all  the  rest 
were  kept  in  charge,  put  into  a  conveyance  and  brought  to  Ver- 
sailles. The  Crown  Prince  was  verj'  angry  at  the  behaviour  of 
the  soldiers,  and  the  London  papers  would  storm  frightfully, 
and  try  to  turn  the  affair  into  a  national  insult.  L.  seemed  a 
little  warm  over  it.  I  thought  to  myself,  that  he  who  thrusts 
himself  into  danger  must  abide  the  consequences,  and  that  the 
man  who  goes  a  journey  is  likely  to  have  something  to  tell. 
Bucher,  too,  when  I  told  him  the  story,  seemed  to  think  it 
rather  enjoyable  than  serious,  and  said  that  it  was  a  continu- 
ation of  the  well-known  comic  narrative  of  Brown,  Jone.s,  and 
Robinson,  who  undertook  their  famous  joiirney  to  foreign  parts 
without  knowing  any  language  but  that  of  the  London  Cockney, 
and  who  had  fallen  into  all  sorts  of  trouble. 

Afterwards  Bucher  told  us  that  the  Chief  was  a  great  lover 
of  nature  and  picturesque  claces.   He  had  several  times  rambled 


264        Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War. 

through  the  country  near  Yarzin  with  him,  and  about  the  close 
of  the  walk  he  often  said,  "You  are  wearying  for  your  dinner 
no  doubt,  but  there  is  that  one  hill  for  us  to  climb  yet,  to  get 
the  view  from  the  top." 

In  the  evening  after  ten  there  were  repeated  discharges  from 
the  forts. 

Sunday,  Decemher  18. — About  two  the  Chief  went  out  to  the 
prefecture  for  the  presentation  of  the  people  from  the  Reichs- 
tag. In  the  interval  before  his  probable  return,  I  took  a  walk 
through  the  Park  with  Wollmann,  ending  by  way  of  the  Avenue 
de  Paris,  where  the  ceremony  at  the  prefecture  seems  to  have 
been  got  through  very  simply.  The  Princes  present  here  went, 
I  believe,  to  the  King,  as  did  also  the  delegates  from  the 
Reichstag.  After  two  o'clock  the  King  came  into  the  audience- 
room,  accompanied  by  the  Crown  Prince  and  Princes  Karl  and 
Adalbert.  The  Grand  Dukes  of  Baden,  Oldenburg,  and 
Weimar,  the  Duke  of  Coburg  and  Meiningen,  the  three  actual 
Hereditary  Grand  Dukes  of  Mecklenburg,  Weimar,  and  Olden- 
burg, Prince  William  of  Wiirtemburg,  and  a  number  of  other 
princely  personages  were  present,  and  the  rest  of  the  audience 
was  grouped  round  the  Chancellor  of  the  Confederation.  No- 
body, was,  it  seems,  in  full  uniform.  Simson  made  the  address 
to  the  King,  who  answered  pretty  much  as  had  been  expected. 
About  five  o'clock,  a  dinner  of  eighty  covers  closed  the  cere- 
monies. 

This  afternoon  I  dined  with  Dr.  Good,  *  and  met  there  an- 
other Kentuckian,  Mr.  Rowland  MacLean,  and  the  English 
newspaper  correspondent  Conningsby.  The  Americans  were 
charming  people.  They  were  much  astonished  at  the  accuracy 
with  which  I  described  to  them  Falmouth,  Rowland's  birth- 
place, and  the  way  to  it  from  Cincinnati.  They  wanted  to  know 
my  opinion  about  the  United  States,  and  especially  what  I 
thought  about  the  great  Civil  War,  in  which  Good  had  been  a 
long  time  engaged.  My  answer,  in  which  I  did  justice  also  to 
the  Secessionists,  seemed  to  please  them  greatly.  Then 
Coningsby  brought  up  the  incident  with  Hosier  and  his  friends, 


•  An  unusiially  agreeable  young  doctor  from  Louisville,  Kentucky,  who, 
being  a  complete  master  of  German,  had  devoted  himself  to  the  care  of  the 
sick  at  headquarters,  and  whose  acquaintance  I  had  made  through  MacLean. 
Some  time  afterwards  he  was  himself  the  victim  of  a  long  and  fatal  illness, 
caused  by  the  fatigues  he  had  undergone  during  the  American  Secession 
War.  - 


The  British  Lion  and  Civis  Romanus.         265 

and  wished  to  know  what  I  thought  abont  it.  I  told  hiui  that 
the  gentlemen  had  added  a  fresh  chapter  to  the  adventures  of 
Brown,  Jones,  and  Robinson.  It  could  not  reasonably  be  ex- 
pected that  our  soldiers  and  subaltern  officers  should  understand 
English,  and  the  thing  appeared  to  me  to  be  founded  on  a  mis- 
imderstanding.  He  replied  that  Hosier  had  certainly  spoken 
German,  and  that  the  papers  which  all  the  four  gentlemen  had 
on  their  persons  were  written  in  German  and  signed  by  Roon 
and  Blumenthal.  "  In  that  case,"  I  said,  "it  is  in  all  likelihood 
a  case  of  military  over-conscientiousness ;  too  much  zeal  and 
precaution."  Mr.  Conningsby  replied  that  he  could  not  see  it 
in  that  light ;  he  thought  that  the  soldiers  had  ill-used  the  cor- 
respondents, because  they  were  inoculated  with  the  bitter  feel- 
ing in  Germany  about  the  English  supply  of  arms.  We  should 
see,  however,  what  would  come  of  it.  ^ 

I  did  not  want  to  say  that  what  he  called  embittered  feeling 
was  probably  more  like  distrust,  or  that  I  thought  it  quite  in- 
telligible. So  I  merely  said,  "Most  likely  it  will  make  a  great 
noise,  an  angry  effervescence  in  the  newspapers,  and  nothing 
more."  I  added  that  I  could  not  imagine  that  more  coitld  come 
of  it.  He  replied  that  I  should  not  be  too  sure  of  that,  and 
talked  about  the  British  lion  and  civis  Roinanus.  I  answered 
that  if  the  lion  roared,  we  should  say,  "Well  roared,  lion;" 
"Roar  again,  lion.  As  for  the  civis,  times  had  a  little  altered 
since  he  used  to  be  the  fashion.  "People  have  their  own 
thoughts  about  these  matters,"  I  said.  He  replied  that  we 
were  quite  intoxicated  with  our  success,  and  that  if  the  British 
Lion  were  not  satisfied  he  could  fight  as  Avell  as  roar.  The  least 
that  could  be  asked  would  be  -the  cashiering  of  the  officer  in 
command  when  his  countrymen  had  been  arrested.  I  begged 
him  not  to  get  excited,  to  look  at  the  matter  in  cold  blood.  It 
could  not  in  any  circumstance  be  serious.  We  should  certainly 
not  throw  our  people  over  at  once  as  a  sop  to  the  Lion,  however 
that  animal  might  rage.  If  injustice  had  been  really  done  to 
the  correspondents,  a  point  which  an  inquiry  would  settle,  they 
would  undoubtedly  get  satisfaction.  As  for  our  intoxication 
with  ouTr  success,  I  must  point  out  to  him  that  throughout  this 
war  we  had  as  a  nation  shown  ourselves  most  modest,  very  free 
from  conceit  or  vain-gloriousness,  especially  when  contrasted 
with  the  unmeasured  lying  and  boasting  of  the  French.  T 
ended  by  saying  that  I  repeated  that  I  considered  the  whole 
afiair  a  trifle,  that  it  was  impossible  that  England  should  quarrel 
18 


266        Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War. 

with  us,  or  as  he  seemed  to  expect,  declare  war  against  us,  about 
trifles.  But  I  continued  to  believe  that  the  matter  would  make  a 
great  noise  in  thenewspapers,  and  that  nothing  serious  would  come 
of  it.  In  the  end  he  calmed  down,  and  confessed  that  he  had 
himself  been  arrested  during  the  engagement  near  Bougival  and 
Malmaison,  and  harshly  used  by  the  Prussians,  but  even  more 
liarshly  by  his  own  countryman,  Colonel  Walker,  to  whom  he 
had  appealed.  Walker  is  the  English  military  plenipotentiary 
at  headquarters.  He  had  received  him  gruffly,  and  told  him  in 
plain  words  that  he  had  no  business  in  battlefields.  He  then 
described  Walker  to  us  as  a  man  of  no  ability.  I  suppressed 
the  remark  that  I  thought  of  making,  in  that  instance  Col- 
onel Walker  seemed  to  have  shown  himself  a  man  of  better 
judgment  than  some  other  folks.  The  discussion  at  last  dropped 
away  peaceably  enough.  Throughout,  the  American  sided  with 
me  and  the  Germans.         * 

Monday,  December  19. — In  the  morning  Abeken  and  I  again 
gathered  violets  in  the  garden,  and  found  three  bunches,  which 
I  sent  home.  After  two  o'clock  I  made  an  excursion  through 
the  park,,  meeting  the  Chief  twice,  with  Simson  beside  him  in 
his  carriage.  The  Minister  was  invited  to  dine  with  the  Crown 
Prince  at  seven,  but  half  an  hour  or  so  before,  he  ate  a  little 
with  us.  He  told  us  about  his  drive  with  Simson.  "  The  last 
time  he  was  here  was  in  1830,  after  the  July  revolution.  I 
thought  he  would  have  taken  an  interest  in  the  park  and  the 
beautiful  views  there,  but  he  seemed  to  do  nothing  of  the  sort. 
Apparently  the  feeling  for  landscape  is  completely  wanting  in 
him.  There  are  many  people  in  whom  it  is  so.  As  far  as 
I  know  there  are  no  Jewish  landscape  painters,  and,  indeed, 
hardly  any  Jewish  painters  of  any  kind."  Somebody  men- 
tioned Meierheim,  and  Bendemann.  "  Meierheim  "  he  said, 
"  yes  ;  but  Bendemann  had  only  Jewish  grand-parenw-;.  There 
are  plenty  of  Jewish  composers — Meyerbeer,  Menci  Issohn, 
Halevy  ;  but  for  painters,  a  Jew  paints  indeed,  but  only  when 
he  does  not  need  to  do  it." 

Abeken  then  told  us  about  Kogge's  sermon  yesterday  in  the 
church  of  the  chateau,  and  said  he  had  talked  too  much  ^bout 
the  deputation  here  from  the  Reichstag.  The  Chief  replied, 
"  I  am  not  at  all  of  that  mind,  certainly  not.  These  people 
have  once  more  voted  us  a  hundred  million  thalers  (fifteen  mil- 
lion pounds),  a  id  they  have  apj  roved  the  Versailles  Conven- 
t'-^'^s  in  spite  o'  their  own  doctrin   're  views,  and  much  to  the 


Recollectio'os  of  Youth.  267 

disgust  of  many  people.  We  ought  to  recognzie  all  that.  No ; 
I  cannot  entertain  such  an  opinion  of  them.  I  am  only  cross 
M  ith  Delbrixck,  who  disturbed  my  mind  greatly  by  saying  that 
they  were  not  likely  to  agree  to  the  Conventions." 

The  privy  councillor  talked  of  the  incidents  at  Ems,  shortly 
before  the  war  broke  out,  and  told  us  that  after  a  certain  de- 
spatch the  King  had  said  :  "  Well,  even  he  (Bismarck)  will  be 
pleased  \%ith  us."  "  And  I  believe,"  added  Abeken,  "  that  you 
were."  From  the  Chancellor's  reply,  it  must  have  been  a  "par- 
tial satisfaction."  "  I  remember,"  he  said,  "how  I  received 
the  news  in  Varzin.  I  had  gone  out,  and  I  found  the  first  tele- 
gram waiting  for  me  when  I  came  home.  I  went  off  at  once, 
driving  by  our  pastor's  house  at  Wussau.  He  stood  right  be- 
fore his  door,  and  saluted  me.  I  said  nothing  to  him,  but 
merely  made  this  cut  (marking  the  crossing  of  the  swords  in  the 
air).  He  undei-stood  me,  and  I  went  on."  Then  he  told  us 
how  the  thing  changed  back  and  forward  up  to  the  point 
when  the  declaration  of  war  came.  The  Minister  then  said 
that  he  had  meant  at  first  to  go  to  church  yesterday,  "but 
I  was  anxious,"  he  said,  "  not  to  catch  cold  in  the  procession. 
I  caught  a  most  frightful  headache  once  before  in  it ;  and,  be- 
sides, I  was  very  much  afraid  that  Rogge  would  say  too  much." 

Afterwards,  in  what  connection  I  do  not  remember,  he 
began  to  speak  of  the  "nut  war,"  which  was  the  result  of  the 
battle  of  Tannenberg,  in  which  the  combatants  are  said  to  have 
lost  themselves  in  a  large  wood,  which  at  that  time  stretched 
from  Biitow  far  into  Poland,  and  consisted  entirely  of  walnut 
thickets  and  of  oaks.  In  connection  with  something  else, 
though  I  do  not  remember  this  connection  either,  he  mentioned 
the  battle  of  Fehrbellin,  which  brought  him  to  talk  of  old  peo- 
ple who  had  outlived  so-and-so.  "  We  had  an  old  cowherd 
called  Brand  at  home,  who  may  very  likely  have  spoken  to 
people  who  were  at  the  battle  of  Fehrbellin.  Brand  was  one 
of  tho.se  ancient  pieces  of  furniture  with  which  the  recollections 
of  my  youth  are  inseparably  bound  up.  When  I  think  of  him 
I  seem  to  be  smelling  heather  and  meadow  flowers.  Yes,  it  is 
possible ;  he  was  91  or  93  years  old,  and  died  in  1820  or  1821. 
He  had  seen  King  Frederick  William  the  First  in  Coslin,  where 
he  had  served  with  his  father  as  a  post-boy.  If,  then,  he  was 
bom  about  1730,  it  is  quite  possible  that  he  may  have  kno^vn 
people  who  fought  in  Fehrbellin,  for  that  is  only  fifty  or  sixty 
years  farther  back." 


268        Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War. 

Abeken  had  also  his  remarkable  recollections  of  youth.  Ho 
had  seen  the  poet  Gockingk,  who  died  in  the  course  of  the  la-^t 
twenty  years,  from  which  we  mad(!  out  that  tlie  old  man  was 
born  in  1809.  The  Chief  then  said  tliat  lie  iiii<;lit  himself  pos- 
sibly have  seen  pig-tails  when  he  Avas  a  child..  Turning  to 
Abeken,  he  continued  :  "  It  is  more  likely  that  you  did,  as  you 
are  five  or  six  years  older  than  I  am."  Tinn  he  rrdurned  to 
Pomerania,  and,  if  I  do  not  mistake,  to  VarziTi,  wdu  re  a  French 
Piedmontese  had  settled  down  after  the  la.st  French  war.  The 
man  interested  him,  as  he  had  worlccd  himself  up  to  a  respect- 
able position,  and  although  originally  a  Catliolic,  had  l)ecomo 
one  of  the  churchwardens.  As  another  instance  of  people  set- 
tling and  becoming  prosperous  in  some  chance  locality,  he  meii- 
tioned  other  Italians,  who  during  tlic  war  of  1813,  had  gotintc 
this  back  region  of  Pomerania,  remained  thorp,  nnd  founded 
families,  distinguishable  from  those  of  iheir  neighbors  only 
through  the  cast  of  their  features. 

Finally,  we  spoke  of  Middcr,  a  friend,  of  Abeken's,  whom  he 
had  that  day,  contrary  to  Keudell's  opinion,  declared  to  be  quite 
unreplaceable.  From  the  influence  of  th;it  Minister's  wife  upon 
his  decisions,  and  his  whole  political  attitude,  the  conversation 
turned  on  the  influence  which  energetic  Avives  usually  exer- 
cise over  their  husbands.  "Yes,"  said  the  Chief,  "in  such  cases 
one  usually  cannot  tell  to  whom  the  merit  or  demerit  of  a  thing 
is  to  be  attributed — qicid  ipse  fecit  et  quid  mulier  fecit " 
("  which  is  his  part  and  which  his  wife's") ;  a  remark  which  he 
illustrated  by  many  examples  which  cannot  be  given  here.  It 
was  after  ten  o'clock  before  the  Minister  came  back  from  the 
Crown  Prince,  and  he  then  went  out  to  take  the  Crown  Prince's 
Marshal  of  the  Palace,  who  returned  with  him  ten  minutes 
later,  for  a  short  walk  in  the  garden.  Afterwards,  when  I  was 
having  tea  in  my  own  room,  Engel  whispered  me  up  the  stair- 
case, "Do  you  know,  doctor,  that  the  Crown  Prince  is  to  dine 
with  us  to-morrow  evening  1" 

Tuesday,  December  20. — Whilst  I  was  preparing  an  article 
in  the  Bureau,  Keudell  told  me  that  the  Chief  had  decided  that 
all  State  documents  as  they  came  in  and  went  out  were  from 
this  time  forward  to  be  open  to  my  inspection  on  my  request. 
He  gave  me  a  telegram  to  read  from  the  Minister  himself,  re- 
ferring to  Luxemburg,  and  afterwards  he  sent  me,  through 
Wollmann,  the  authority  required  for  my  better  information. 


The  German  Marines.  269 

After  three  o'clock  the  Minister  went  to  the  King,  and  I 
took  a  walk  \vitli  Wollmann  through  the  town,  and  afterwards 
through  the  Avenue  de  Saint-Cloud.  On  the  main  road,  a 
peculiar  dark  blue  mass  appeared  in  the  distance  coming  to 
meet  us.  TJicy  loolccd  like  soldiers,  and  yet  not  like  soldiers. 
They  marched  in  close  column  and  in  regular  step.  There  were 
muskets  without  bayonets  ;  there  were  neither  caps  nor  hel- 
mets ;  and  then?  was  no  wliite  leather.  It  was  only  when  the 
procession  came  nearer  that  I  recognize  the  black  glazed  hats 
of  the  sailors  of  our  Marine,  their  black  belts  and  main  braces, 
their  shiny  knapsacks,  their  pea-jackets,  and  their  cutlasses. 
There  wore  sojiie  hundreds  of  them,  with  five  or  six  officers, 
from  whom,  when  the  troop  halted,  we  learned  that  they  were 
the  crews  of  four  of  the  Loire  steamers  wliich  have  been  cap- 
tured by  Prince  Frederick  Charles's*  troops.  It  appears  that 
they  are  quartered  in  the  Rue  de  la  Pompe,  and  in  the  Rue 
Heche.  There  were  many  strapping  and  good-looking  fellows 
amongst  them.  Numbers  of  French  gathered  round  to  watch 
thes(>  mystei-ious  foreigners,  the  like  of  whom  they  had  never 
se(!U.  "  Thuy  are  German  soldiers,"  I  heard  somebody  say  ; 
"they  can  speak  many  languages  (ce  sont  des  polyglottes),  and 
are  to  serve  as  interpreters  for  the  Prussians." 

Shortly  after  six  o'clock  the  Crown  Prince,  with  his  adju- 
tant, came  to  dint'  with  us.  He  wore  the  ensigns  of  his  new 
military  rank,  a  large  cross  and  a  field-marshal's  baton,  upon 
the  shoulder-plates.  He  sat  at  the  top  of  the  table,  with  the 
Chief  at  his  right  and  Abeken  at  his  left.  After  soup,  we 
spoke  first  of  the  subject  that  I  had  been  that  morning  prepar- 
ing for  the  press,  namely,  that  according  to  a  communication 
from  Israel,  the  secretary  of  Laurier,  the  provisional  govern- 
ment's London  agent,  Gambetta  no  longer  believes  in  a  success- 
ful defence,  and  is  inclined  to  make  peace  upon  our  conditions ; 
That  Trochu  alone  of  the  present  rulers  of  France  wants  to  go 
on  fighting,  and  that  the  others  pledged  themselves,  when  he 
undertook  the  conduct  of  the  defence  of  Paris,  to  act  always  in 
harmony  with  him.  On  that  point  the  Chief  remarked,  "  He 
is  said  to  have  provisioned  Mont  Valerien  for  two  months,  so 
as  to  retire  there  with  the  regular  troops  who  stay  by  him,  when 
the  city  is  given  up,  probably  in  order  to  influence  the  settle- 
ment of  the  terms  of  peace.  I  believe  for  my  own  part, "  he 
continued,  "that  France  will  in  future  break  up  into  several 
fragments.     It  is  broken  up  into  parties  already.     In  the  dif- 


270        Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War. 

ferent  districts  people  are  of  very  diiFerent  parties.  They  are 
Legitimists  in  Brittany,  Red  Republicans  in  the  South,  Mod- 
erates elsewhere,  and  the  regular  army  is  still  attached  to  the 
Emperor,  at  least  the  majority  of  the  officers  are.  Each  of  these 
parts  of  France  may  follow  its  own  convictions  ;  one  Republican, 
one  for  the  Bourbons,  one  where  the  Orleanists  have  most  sup- 
porters, and  Napoleon's  people — tetrarchies  of  Judea,  Galilee, 
and  so  forth." 

The  Crown  Prince  said  that  it  was  believed  that  Paris  must 
have  underground  communication  with  the  outside  world.  The 
Chief  supposed  that  it  must  be  so,  and  said,  "  They  can't  get 
provisions  in  that  way,  but  they  might  get  news.  I  have  al- 
ready thought  whether  we  could  not  fill  up  the  sewers  with 
water  from  the  Seine,  and  so  flood  at  least  the  lower-lying  quar- 
ters of  the  city.  These  sewers  go  right  under  the  Seine." 
Bucher  confirmed  this  statement,  and  said  that  he  had  been  in 
the  sewers  and  had  noticed  their  side  entrances  at  different 
points,  where  nobody,  however,  was  permitted  to  go.  Some- 
body said  that  if  Paris  were  now  taken  it  would  have  an  effect 
upon  opinion  in  Bavaria,  the  accounts  from  which  were  again 
not  satisfactory.  The  Chief  said,  "  The  King  remains  always 
the  most  thorough-going  German  in  these  exalted  regions."  The 
conversation  then  turned  on  another  princely  personage,  who 
was  described  as  very  hostile  to  Prussia,  but  is  too  old  and  frail 
to  be  dangerous.     "  There  is  very  little  that  is  natural  left  in 

him,"  somfbody  said.     "That  reminds  me  of  Gr ,"  said  the 

Minister,  "who  had  pretty  much  everything  about  him  false — 
his  hair,  his  teeth,  his  calves,  and  one  of  his  eyes.  When  he 
wanted  to  dress  in  the  morning,  the  larger  and  the  better  half 
of  him  lay  round  his  bed  on  chairs  and  tables.  It  s  like  the 
picture  of  the  newly-married  man  in  the  '  Fliegen^ie  Blatter,' 
whose  bride,  when  she  undressed,  put  her  hair  in  one  corner, 
her  teeth  in  another,  and  other  parts  of  her  elsewhere,  aaid  the 
bridegroom  asked,  '  But  what  is  there  left  for  me! ' " 

The  Chief  went  on  to  tell  us  that  the  sentry  at  the  house  of 
the  person  he  had  been  speaking  of,  who  is  a  Pole,  refused,  one 
evening  recently,  to  allow  him  to  go  into  the  house,  and  it  was 
only  when  he  made  himself  understood  in  Polish  that  the  man 
was  persuaded  to  do  so,  "  In  the  hospital,"  he  added,  "  I  tried, 
a  couple  of  days  since,  to  talk  with  the  Polish  soldiers,  and  they 
seemed  quite  to  brighten  up  when  they  heard  a  general  using 
their  native  tongue.     It  was  a  pity  that  I  could  not  go  on,  and 


The  Poles  and  the  Croiun  Prince.  271 

had  to  leave.  Perhaps  it  would  be  Avell  if  their  commander 
could  talk  to  them. " 

"Ah,  Bismarck,  you  are  going  to  attack  me  again  on  that 
point,  as  you  have  done  several  times  before,"  said  the  CroAvn 
Prince,  smiling.  "  No,  I  really  cannot  do  it ;  I  am  not  going 
to  learn  any  more  languages." 

"  But  they  are  really  good  soldiers,  your  Royal  Highness," 
replied  the  Chancellor,  "  and  brave  fellows,  only  the  majority  of 
the  priests'  party  are  against  us,  as  well  as  the  aristocracy  and 
their  retainers,  and  those  who  hang  on  to  them.  A  nobleman, 
who  is  nobody  himself,  maintains  a  whole  crowd  of  persons  and 
servants  of  all  kinds,  who  have  nothing  particular  to  do,  but 
who  act  as  his  house-servants,  stewards,  writers,  and  so  forth. 
If  he  is  inclined  to  rebel,  he  has  these  fellows  on  his  side,  as 
well  as  his  day-laborers,  the  Komorniks.  The  free  peasants 
do  not  go  with  him,  even  when  the  priest,  who  is  always  against 
us,  stirs  them  up.  We  saw  that  in  Posen,  too,  where  the 
Polish  regiments  had  to  be  withdrawn,  solely  because  they  were 
too  rough  Avith  their  own  country  people.  I  remember  not  far 
from  our  place  in  Pomerania,  there  was  a  market  where  many 
Kassuben*  had  established  themselves.  There  was  a  fight  there 
once,  because  a  German  had  said  to  a  Kassube  that  he  would 
not  sell  him  a  cow  because  he  was  a  Pola  The  other  took  this 
very  ill.  You  '^ay  I  am  a  Polack,'  he  said  ;  '  No,  I  am  a 
Prussack,  like  }  ourself.'  A  famous  cudgelling  ensued,  other 
Germans  and  Poles  mixing  themselves  up  in  the  affair, " 

In  this  connection,  the  Chief  added  that  the  Great  Elector 
was  able  to  speak  Polish  quite  as  well  as  German,  and  that  the 
later  kings  had  also  understood  Polish.  Frederick  the  Great 
was  the  first  who  had  not  taken  the  trouble  to  do  so,  but  he  had 
understood  French  even  better  than  German,  "  I  don't  deny 
that,  but  I  am  not  going  to  lear.i  Polish.  Let  them  learn 
German,  "  said  the  Crown  Prince,  and  the  subject  dropped. 

Excellent  new  dishes  every  now  and  then  came  in,  and  the 
Crown  Prince  remarked,  "  You  are  really  gourmets  here.  How 
well  fed  the  gentlemen  in  your  oflice  look  !  all  but  Bucher,  who 
has  not  been  here  so  long,"  "  Yes,"  said  the  Chief,  "  it  all 
comes  from  love  offerings.     These  contributions  of  Rhine  wine 


*  A  tribe  of  Wends  in  East  Pnissia,  near  Coslin,  on  the  Lieber  and  the 
Baltic,  who  are  almost  entirely  distinct  from  the  Germans,  who  maintain 
their  own  customs  and  hmguage,  and  whose  preachers  address  them  both  in 
German  and  in  their  native  tongue,      , 


272        Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War. 

and  pasties,  and  smoked  goose-breast,  and  goose-liver,  are  a 
speciality  of  the  Foreign  Office.  Our  people  are  quite  deter- 
mined to  fatten  their  Chancellor." 

At  this  point  the  Crown  Prince  turned  the  conversation 
round  to  ciphering  and  deciphering,  and  asked  whether  it  was 
difficult.  The  Minister  explained  to  him  the  trick  of  it  in  de- 
tail, and  went  on  to  say,  "  If,  for  instance,  I  want  to  cipher  the 
word  'but'  ('a6er'),  I  write  down  the  group  of  numbers  for 
Abeken,  and  after  that  group  signifying  '  Strike  out  the  two  last 
syllables."  Then  I  put  the  cipher  for  Berlin,  and  tell  the 
writer  a.§faia  to  strike  out  the  last  syllable.      Thus  I  get  'aber.'  " 

At  desisert  the  Crown  Prince  brought  out  of  his  pocket  a  short 
tobacco-pipe,  with  a  procelain  bowl  with  an  eagle  on  it,  and 
lighted  up,  whilst  the  rest  of  us  lighted  our  cigars. 

After  dinner,  the  Crown  Prince  and  the  Minister  went  into 
the  drawing-room  for  coffiie  with  the  Councillors.  After  a  while 
we,  viz.  myself  and  the  secretaries,  were  brought  out  of  the 
office  by  Abeken,  to  be  officially  presented  to  the  future  Em- 
peror by  the  Chief.  We  were  kept  waiting  perhaps  a  quarter 
of  an  hour,  as  the  Chancellor  had  got  deep  into  conversation 
with  the  Crown  Prince.  His  distinguished  guest  sat  there  in 
the  corner,  between  Madame  Jesse's  cottage  piano  and  one  of 
the  windows,  and  the  Chief  spoke  low  to  him,  for  the  most 
part  keeping  his  eyes  down,  while  the  Crown  Prince  listened 
with  an  earnest  and  almost  gloomy  expression.  In  the  presen- 
tation Wollmann  came  first,  and  the  Crown  Prince  remarked  to 
him  that  he  knew  his  handwriting.  Then  I  came ;  the  Chief 
introducing  me  as  Dr.  Busch,  for  the  Press.  The  Crown 
Prince  :  "How  long  have  you  been  in  the  service  of  the  State ']'" 
"  Since  February,  your  Royal  Highness."  The  Chief  :"  Dr. 
Busch  is  a  Saxon — a  Dresdener."  The  Crown  Prince  said, 
"  Dresden  is  a  fine  city  ;  I  always  like  to  go  there.  What  was 
your  previous  occupation  1"  I  answered  that  I  had  been  editor 
of  the  Grenzhoten.  "  I  have  often  read  it,  so  that  I  know 
you,"  he  replied.  And  then  I  had  also  been  a  great  travel- 
ler, I  told  him.  "  Where  have  you  been  '?"  he  asked.  "  I  have 
been  in  America,  and  three  times  in  the  East,"  I  answered. 
"  Did  you  like  iti — should  you  like  to  go  back  again  ?"  "  Oh 
yes,  your  Royal  Highness,  especially  to  Egypt."  "  Yes,  I 
understand  ;  T  myself  had  a  great  desire  to  go  back  there.  The 
colors  in  Egypt  are  splenilid  :  but  our  German  meadows  and 
woods  are  far  dearer  to  mo."^    He  then  presented  Blanquart ; 


A  Thousand  Years  ago.  273 

then  Willisch,  and  finally  Wiehr,  who  mentioned  to  him,  among 
other  things,  that  he  had  studied  music  for  several  years  under 
Marx.  Wollmann  says  that  he  was  formerly  a  music-teacher, 
after  which  he  became  a  rifleman,  in  which  capacity  he  had 
come  forward  at  the  time  the  attempt  of  Sefelog  on  the  life  of 
the  former  King  had  been  baffled.  Then  he  was  employed  as 
telegraphist  in  the  Foreign  Office,  and  when  there  was  no  more 
direct  telegraphing  to  do,  as  copyist  and  decipherer. 

After  the  presentation,  I  reaid  over  in  the  Bureau  the  diplo- 
matic reports  and  minutes  of  the  last  few  days :  the  minute, 
for  instance,  on  the  King's  speech  to  the  deputation  from  the 
Reichstag,  which  was  drawn  by  Abeken,  and  very  much  alter- 
ed by  the  Chief.  At  tea  Hatzfeld  told  me  that  he  had  been 
trying  to  decipher  an  account  of  the  condition  of  Paris,  which 
had  come  out  with  Washbume's  messages,  and  that  he  was 
doubtful  only  about  a  few  expressions.  He  then  showed  it  me, 
and  by  our  united  efforts  we  managed  to  make  out  the  .sense  of 
some  of  them.  It  appeared  to  be  based  throughout  upon  ex- 
cellent information  and  to  l>e  in  conformity  with  the  facts. 
According  to  it,  the  smaller  tradesmen  are  suffeiing  severely, 
but  the  people  below  them  not  very  much,  as  vhey  are  looked 
after  by  the  Government.  There  is  great  want  of  firing, 
especially  of  coals.  Gas  is  no  longer  burned.  In  the  last 
sorties  the  French  suSered  considerable  loss,  but  their  spirit  is 
not  yet  broken.  Our  victory  at  Orleans  has  produced  no 
marked  impression  upon  the  Parisians. 

Wednesday,  December  21. — In  the  morning  I  again  looked 
for  violets,  and  found  some.  Then  I  turned  over  the  recent 
publications.  Afterwards  I  read  a  tract  which  I  found  among 
them,  of  the  treaty  between  Charles  the  Bald  and  Louis  the 
Germaii,  at  the  time  of  the  partition  of  Lothringen,  in  the 
year  870,  exactly  a  thousand  years  ago,  establishing  the  first 
Franco-German  boundary.  I  made  exti-acts  from  it  for  the 
press. 

In  the  afternoon  the  Chief  rode  out,  and  I  took  a  walk  with 
Wollmann.  We  take  a  turn  accordingly  through  the  .streets. 
The  sailons  are  drawn  up  on  the  Avenue  de  Saint-Cloud,  and 
we  notice  our  Chief  talking  to  their  commander.  In  the  Rue 
de  la  Pompe,  on  the  Right  hand,  infantiy  posts  are  planted  be- 
fore every  house,  and  in  the  Place  Hoche  a  company  of  dra- 
goons is  stationed.  All  the  roads  out  of  the  town  are  barred. 
We  sec  men  in  blouses  arrested,  and  a  gunsmith  in  the  Avenue 


274        Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War. 

de  Paris,  behind  whom  a  soldier  is  carrying  a  number  of  fowl- 
ing-pieces. A  priest  is  also  marched  in.  Lastly,  about  a  dozen 
guilty  or  suspected  persons  are  brought  in  together,  and  taken 
across  to  the  prison  in  the  Rue  Saint-Pierre,  where  they  are 
ranged  in  the  courtyard.  There  are  some  vere  desperate-look- 
ing fellows  among  them.  It  is  said  that  forty-three  fowling- 
pieces  were  found  in  the  gunsmith's  shop,  and  a  gun-barrel,  Avhich 
he  had  most  likely  not  come  by  in  a  good  way.* 

At  table  Dr.  Lauer  was  the  Chief's  g-uest.  We  talked  about 
the  report  that  in  Paris  the  people  had  already  swallowed  all 
the  eatable  animals  in  the  Jardin  des  Plantes,  and  Hatzfeld 
told  us  that  the  camels  had  been  sold  for  four  thousand  francs 
(one  hundred  and  sixty  pounds)  each,  that  the  elephant's  trunk 
had  been  eaten  by  a  company  of  gourmands,  and  that  it  made 
an  admirable  dish.  "  Ah,"  said  Lauer,  "  that  is  very  likely  ;  it 
is  a  mass  of  muscles  woven  together,  which  accounts  for  its 
flexibility  and  for  the  force  with  which  it  can  apply  it.  It  is 
something  like  the  tongue,  and  must  taste  like  a  tongue." 
Somebody  remarked  that  the  camels'  humps  were  probably  not 
bad  either,  and  another  said  that  the  humps  were  a  great  deli- 
cacy. The  Chief  listened  to  him  for  a  while,  and  then  said, 
thoughtfully,  tirst  a  litt.e  stooping,  then  taking  a  long  breath 
and  lifting  himself  up  as  he  usually  does  when  he  is  joking, 
"  H'm  !  The  hump-backed  men,  what  about  their  humps  %" 
Loud  and  universal  laughter  inteiTupted  him.  Lauer  remarked, 
dryly  and  scientifically,  that  men's  humps  were  due  to  a  perver- 
sion of  ribs  or  bones,  or  a  sort  of  curvature  of  the  vertebral 
column,  so  that  they  could  not  be  very  good  for  eating,  whereas 
camels'  humps  were  flexible  growths  of  cartilage^  which  possibly 
might  not  taste  badly.  This  thread  was  spun  out  a  little  longer, 
and  we  talked  of  bear's  flesh,  then  of  bear's  paws,  and,  lastly, 
of  the  gourmands  among  the  cannibals,  about  whom  the  Min- 
ister wanted  to  tell  a  pleasant  story.  He  began  :  "A  child,  a 
fresh  yound  maiden,  certainly,  but  an  old  grown-up  tough  fel- 
low cannot  be  good  for  eating."  Then  he  went  on:  "I  re- 
member an  old  Kaffir,  or  Hottentot  woman,  who  had  long  been 
a  Christian.  When  the  missionary  was  preparing  her  for  her 
death,  and  found  her  quite  ready  for  glory,  he  asked  her 
•whethei  there  was  anything  she  particularly  wished.     'No,'  . 

*  The  man's  name  was  Listray,  and  as  probably  only  concealment  of  wea- 
pons could  be  proved  against  him,  he  got  off  tolerably  easily.  He  was  only 
compelled  to  take  an  involuntary  journey  into  Germany. 


An  Ancestor.  275 

she  said ;  '  everything  was  quite  comfortabla  ^dth  her ;  but  if 
anybody  could  oblige  her  with  a  pair  of  young  child's  hands 
for  eating,  she  would  regard  them  as  a  great  delicacy.'" 

We  then  talked  about  sleeping,  and  about  the  sailors  whom 
we  met  yesterday.  The  Chief  said,  that  if  they  could  have 
brought  the  captured  gunboats  into  the  Seine,  great  services 
might  have  been  expected  of  them.  He  then  began  to  speak 
once  more  of  the  recollections  of  his  youth,  again  mentioning 
the  cowherd  Brand,  and  telling  us  about  an  ancestor  of  his, 
who,  if  I  understood  him  rightly,  had  fallen  at  Czaslen. 
"  The  old  people  near  us,"  he  said,  "  had  often  described  him 
to  my  father.  He  was  a  mighty  hunter  before  the  Lord,  and 
a  heavy  drinker.  Once,  in  a  single  year,  he  shot  154  red 
deer  ;  after  which  Prince  Frederick  Charles  will  scarcely  come 
up  to  him,  though  the  Duke  of  Dessau  may.  I  remember  how 
I  was  told  things  went  in  GollnoAv,  where  the  officers  ate  to- 
gether, and  the  colonel  managed  the  cooking.  It  was  the 
fashion  there  for  five  or  six  dragoons  to  march  up  and  down  in 
a  sort  of  chorus,  and  fire  their  carbines  when  the  toasts  were 
given.  People  certainly  went  on  curiously  in  those  days.  For 
instance,  instead  of  riding  on  a  rail  they  had  a  wooden  donkey 
with  a  sharp  back,  on  which  dragoons  against  whom  any  fault 
had  been  proved  had  to  sit,  often  a  couple  of  hours  together — a 
very  painful  punishment.  Every  now  and  then,  on  the  birth- 
day of  the  colonel  and  of  some  others,  they  took  this  donkey 
out  to  the  bridge  and  pitched  him  over  it  ;  but  there  was 
always  a  new  one  made.  They  had  had  a  new  one  about  a 
hundred  times  over.  The  burgomaster's  wife  (I  could  not 
quite  make  out  what  her  name  was,  but  it  sounded  like  Dal- 
mer)  told  my  father  ...  I  have  the  portrait  of  this  ancestor 
of  mine  in  Berlin.  I  am  supposed  to  be  his  very  image,  at 
least  I  was  when  I  was  young,  so  much  so  that  when  I 
looked  upon  him  it  was  like  looking  at  my  own  face  in  the 
'glass." 

We  went  on  in  this  way  about  old  stories  and  people,  and 
ultimately  agreed  that  many  fashions  of  old  days  had  come 
down  to  the  present  time,  especially  among  folks  in  the  country 
districts.  Somebody  spoke  of  the  children's  song,  "  Flieg,  Mai- 
Kafer,  flieg  !  "  ("  Fly  away,  maybug ")  which,  along  with 
the  ahgehrannten  Pommerland  (fire-ravaged  Pomerania),  recalled 
to  one  of  the  Thirty  Years'  War.  "  Yes,"  said  the  Chief,  "  I 
know  that  expressions  used  to  be  common  with  us  which  mani- 


276        Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War. 

festly  took  us  back  to  the  beginning  of  last  century.  When  I 
had  ridden  well,  my  father  said  to  me,  '  He  is  just  like '  (the 
name  was  not  quite  distinct,  but  soiiuded  like  Pluvenel).  At 
that  time  he  always  said  'He'  in  speaking  to  nie.  Pluvenel 
was  a  master  of  the  horse  of  Louis  XIV.,  and  a  famous  rider. 
When  T  had  ridden  he  also  said  sometimes,  '  He  really  rides  as 
if  he  had  learned  it  at  Hilmar  Cura's,'  who  had  been  riding- 
master  to  Frederick  the  Great." 

He  went  on  to  say  that  it  was  owing  to  a  relation  of  his, 
whose  opinion  had  great  weight  with  liis  parents,  Finance- 
Councillor  Kerl,  that  he  studied  in  Gottiugen.  He  was  sent 
there  to  Professor  Hausmann,  and  was  to  work  at  tuineralogy. 
"  People  at  that  time  thought  a  good  deal  of  Leopold  von  Buch, 
and  fancied  themselves  going  about  througli  tlie  world  like 
him,  chipping  off  bits  of  rocks  with  a  hammer.  Kothing  of 
the  sort  happened  with  me.  It  would  have  been  better  if  they 
had  sent  me  to  Bonn,  where  I  should  have  met  young  men 
from  my  own  district.  In  Gottingen  there  was  nobody  from 
Pomerania,  so  that  I  never  came  across  some  of  my  university 
friends  again  until  I  met  them  in  the  Reichstag."  Somebody 
then  mentioned  one  of  them,  Miers,  from  Hamburg,  and  the 
Minister  said,  "  Yes,  I  remember,  he  was  left-handed,  but  he 
was  not  good  for  much." 

Abeken  told  us  that  a  sortie  of  the  gan-ison  of  Paris  had 
taken  place  after  the  lively  cannonade  from  the  forts  which  we 
had  heard  in  the  morning,  and  that  it  had  been  directed 
especially  against  the  lines  occupied  by  the  Guard.  It  had, 
however,  resulted  almost  entirely  in  an  artillery  skirmish,  and 
the  attack  had .  been  known  beforehand,  and  prepared  for. 
Hatzfeld  remarked  that  he  would  like  to  know  how  they  man- 
aged to  foresee  a  sortie.  He  was  told  that  it  must  take  place 
in  open  ground,  that  one  could  see  the  wagons  and  the  guns 
which  had  to  be  brought  out,  that  for  any  movement  of  great 
masses  of  troops  nothing  could  be  arranged  in  a  single  night. 
"  That  is  true,"  said  the  Chief,  smiling,  "but  a  hundred  louis 
d^or  are  often  an  essential  part  of  our  military  previsions." 

Thursday,  December  22. — It  is  very  cold,  certainly,  perhaps 
fourteen  degrees  of  frost.  The  ice  flowers  are  all  over  my 
window  pane  in  spite  of  the  quantity  of  logs  in  my  fire-place. 
There  was  no  stranger  at  table  to-day.  The  Chief  Avas  in  an 
excellent  humor,  but  the  conversation  had  no  special  signifi- 
cance.    I  may  however  indicate  what  I  remember  of  it.     Who 


Cardinal  Antondli  expected.  277 

knows  to  whom  it  may  be  agreeable  ?  First  the  Minister  said, 
smiling,  and  looking  at  the  menu  lying  before  him,  "  There  is 
always  a  dish  too  much.  I  had  already  decided  to  ruin  my 
stomach  with  goose  and  olives,  and  here  is  Reinfeld  ham,  of 
which  I  cannot  help  taking  too  much,  merely  because  I  want 
to  get  my  o^vn  share," — he  had  not  been  to  breakfast.  "  And 
here  is  Yarzin  wild  boar,  too."  Somebody  mentioned  yester- 
day's sortie,  and  the  Chief  remarked,  "  The  French  came  out 
yesterday  with  three  divisions,  and  we  had  only  fifteen  com- 
panies, and  not  four  complete  battalions,  and  yet  we  made 
almo.st  a  thousand  prisoners.  The  persons  who  make  these 
attacks,  here  one  time  and  there  another,  seem  to  me  like  a 
French  dancing-master,  who  is  leading  a  quadrille,  and  shout- 
ing to  liis  pupils,  now  '  Right  ! '  now  '  Left ! ' 

" '  Ma  comm^re,  quand  je  danse, 
Mon  cotillon  va-t-il  bien  ? 
H  va  de  ci,  il  va  de  la, 
Comme  la  queue  de  notre  chat.'"'' 

During  the  course  of  ham  he  said,  "  Pomerania  is  the  land 
of  smoked  provisions  :  smoked  goose-breast,  smoked  eels,  and 
smoked  ham.  They  only  want  nagelholt,  as  they  have  it  in 
"Westphalia,  to  make  smoked  beef.  The  name,  however,  does 
not  explain  itself  very  clearly — nails,  I  mean,  on  which  things 
hang  while  they  ai-e  being  smoked,  but  the  *  holt,'  perhaps, 
ought  to  be  written  with  a  d."  Then  we  talked  about  the  cold, 
and,  when  the  wild  boar  came  on  the  table,  of  a  wild  boar  hunt 
which  had  taken  place  at  Varzin  during  Count  Herbert's  illness 
at  Bonn.  Afterwards  the  Chief  remarked,  "  That  Antonelli 
should,  after  all,  be  making  ready  for  a  journey,  and  should  be 
coming  here  must  be  quite  bewildering  to  many  people,"  Abe- 
ken  remarked,  "  Antonelli  has  been  very  variously  estimated 
in  the  newspapers  ;  sometimes  as  a  man  of  lofty  and  distin- 
guished intellect,  sometimes  as  a  crafty  intriguer,  sometimes 
merely  as  a  stupid  fellow  or  a  blockhead."  "  Yes,"  said  the 
Chancellor  ;  "  but  that  is  not  doihe  in  the  newspapers  only  ;  it 
is  the  same  with  the  judgment  of  many  diplomatists — Goltz, 
for  instance,  and  our  Harry.  I  shall  say  no  more  of  Goltz  ;  he 
was  not  that  kind  of  man  ;  but  for ,  he  is  this  way  to- 
day and  that  way  to-morrow.  When  I  was  at  Varzin,  and  had 
to  read  his  reports  from  Rome,  his  opinion  about  the  people 
there  changed  twice  every  other  week,  according  as  they  had 
been  treating  him  in  a  friendly  way  or  the  reverse.     Indeed, 


278        Bimiarck  in  the  Franco-German  War. 

he  changed  with  every  post,  and  frequently  he  had  different 
views  in  the  same  letter." 

Friday,  December  23. — Another  very  cold  day.  People 
speak  of  twenty-two  degrees  of  frost.  The  paragraph  in  the 
Situation,  which  makes  the  Empress  Eugenie  see  reason  to 
conclude  peace  with  us,  was  sent  to  the  editor  of  the  Moniteur. 
An  article  of  the  Times,  about  Luxemburg,  defining  our  pos- 
ition, was  forwarded  to  Germany.  The  beginning  of  Treit- 
schke's  pamphlet  in  the  Preussische  Jahrhucher  was  prepared 
for  the  King's  reading. 

About  breakfast  time  a  French  lady,  whose  husband  has  been 
detected  in  treacherous  relations  with  a  band  of  Francs-tireurs 
in  the  Ardennes,  and  been  condemned  to  death  for  it,  is  an- 
nounced as  waiting  for  the  Chief.  She  is  going  to  beg  his  life, 
and  the  Chief  is  to  procure  it  for  her.  He  will  not  see  her, 
since,  as  he  sends  her  word,  the  matter  is  not  in  his  province. 
She  must  go  to  the  War  Minister.  She  goes  off  to  him,  but 
Wollmann  believes  that  she  will  get  there  too  late,  as  Colonel 
Krohn  bad  received  an  order  on  the  14th  to  let  justice  take  its 
course,* 

At  amner  our  guests  were  Baron  and  Deputy  von  Schwarz- 
Koppen,  and  my  old  Hannoverian  acquaintance,  Herr  von 
Pfuel,  who  had  in  the  meantime  become  district  chief  at  Celle. 
They  were  both  to  be  appointed  to  prefectures,  or  something  of 
that  sort.  Afterwards  Count  Lehndorf,  and  an  uncommonly 
handsome  man,  von  Donhoff",  a  lieutenant  of  hussars,  who,  if  I 
am  not  mistaken,  was  an  adjutant  of  Prince  Albrecht's.  To- 
day's memo  may  be  given  as  a  proof  that  our  table  was  excel- 
lently supplied  at  Versailles.  It  included  onion  soup  (with  port 
wine),  a  haunch  of  wild  boar  (with  Tivoli  beer),  Irish  stew, 
Vi'oast  turkey,  chestnuts  (with  champagne  and  red  wine  accord- 
ing to  choice),  and  a  dessert  of  excellent  Caville  apples  and  mag- 
nificent pears. 

We  were  informed  that  General  von  Voigts-Rhetz  had  ap- 
peared before  Tours,  the  population  of  which  having  offered 
resistance,  he  had  been  compelled  to  fire  grenades  at  the  town. 
The  Chief  remarked  :  "  It  is  not  as  it  should  be,  if  he  stopped 

*  This  was  a  mistake.  The  letter  may  have  gone  off,  but  the  person 
concerned,  the  notary  Tharel,  from  Rocroy,  in  the  Department  of  the  Ar- 
dennes, was  banished  to  Germany.  In  June  1871  he  was  still  in  Verden, 
where  he  was  liberated  shortly  afterwards  on  the  application  of  the  French 
Government* 


The  Feuilleton  at  Versailles.  279 

firing  as  soon  as  they  showed  the  white  flag.  I  would  have 
gone  on  firing  grenades  into  the  town  until  they  had  sent  me  out 
400  hostages."  He  again  expressed  himself  severely  about  the 
mild  treatment  that  officers  gave  civilians  who  resisted.  Even 
notorious  treason  is  frequently  not  suitably  punished,  so  that 
the  French  think  they  can  venture  to  do  anything  against  us. 
"  That  is  how  Krohn  behaves,"  he  went  on.  "  He  first  charges 
an  advocate  with  conspiracy  with  Francs-tireurs,  and  after  see- 
ing that  he  is  condemned  to  death,  he  sends  us  one  petition  for 
pardon  after  another,  instead  of  shooting  him,  and  at  last — 
though  he  gets  the  credit  of  being  an  energetic  officer — he  makes 
no  difficulty  about  sending  the  man's  wife  on  to  me  with  a  safe- 
conduct  round  her  neck." 

From  this  foolish  indulgence  the  conversation  turned  to 
Unger,  the  Chief  of  the  general  staff  who  had  been  sent  home, 
his  mind  having  given  way.  He  usually  sits  quiet,  brooding 
on  vacancy,  occasionally,  however,  bursting  out  into  loud  sob- 
bing. "Yes,"  sighed  the  Chief,  "the  chief  of  the  general  staff 
is  a  sorely  harassed  man.  He  is  incessantly  at  work  and 
always  responsible  ;  he  can  carry  nothing  through ;  he  is  per- 
petually cheated  ;  it  is  almost  as  bad  as  being  a  Minister."  "I 
know  myself  what  that  sobbing  is,"  he  said,  "a  uervous  hyste- 
ria, a  sort  of  feverish  convulsion.  I  had  it  once  at  Inkolsburg, 
so  badly  that  my  gorge  rose.  If  a  chief  of  the  general  st^  has 
a  bad  time,  so  has  a  Minister — every  kind  of  vexation,  gnat 
stings  without  end.  The  other  office  may  suit  some  people,  but 
good  management  is  absolutely  indispensable." 

When  the  haunch  of  wild  boar  from  Varzin  was  set  on  the 
table  the  Minister  talked  with  Lehndorf  and  Pfuel  about  hunt- 
ing, about  these  denizens  of  the  woods  and  marshes,  and  about 
'ms  own  exploits  in  the  sport.  Afterwards  somebody  mentioned 
the  Moniteur,  which  appears  here,  and  the  Chief  remarked, 
"  During  the  last  few  weeks  they  have  been  printing  in  it  a 
novel  by  Heyse  about  Meran  (a  watering-place  in  Austria). 
8uch  sentimental  business  is  out  of  place  in  a  paper  which  is 
published  with  the  King's  money,  as  this  really  is.  The  Ver- 
saillese  don't  want  it.  They  want  political  reports  and  military 
news  from  France  and  England — and  I  should  like  to  see  some 
from  Italy — not  this  sugary-tasted  tittle-tattle.  I  have  some 
poetry  in  my  nature,  too,  but  I  don't  remember  ever  glancing 
at  this  feuilleton  after  I  read  the  first  couple  of  sentences." 
Abeken,  who  had  induced  them  to  publish  the  novel,  stood  up 


2S0        Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War. 

for,  the  editors,  and  said  that  it  had  been  taken  from  the  Eevue 
des  deux  Mondes,  which  was  an  eminent  French  paper,  but  the 
Chief  adhered  to  his  opinion.  Somebody  then  said  that  the 
Moniteur  was  now  writing  better  French.  "  That  may  be," 
said  the  Minister  ;  "I  don't  care  much  about  it.  It  is  the  way, 
however,  with  us  Germans.  We  are  always,  even  in  the  high- 
est circles,  asking  whether  we  are  pleasant  and  agreeable  to 
other  people.  If  they  don't  understand  it,  let  them  learn  Ger- 
man. It  is  a  matter  of  indifference  whether  a  proclamation  is 
drawn  up  in  an  elegant  French  style,  so  long  as  it  speaks  adequate- 
ly and  intelligibly.  We  can  never  be  quite  perfect  in  a  foreign 
language.  It  is  impossible  that  a  person  who  uses  it  only  now 
and  then  during,  perhaps,  two  years  and  a  half,  ahould  be  able 
to  express  himself  as  well  in  it  as  one  who  has  been  using  it  for 
fifty-four."  Somebody  ironically  praised  Steinmetz's  procla- 
mation, and  quoted  some  remarkable  specimens  of  language 
from  it.  Lehndorf  said,  "  It  was  certainly  not  elegant  French, 
but  it  was  quite  intelligible."  The  Chief,  "Yes,  understanding 
it  is  what  they  have  to  do  with  it.  If  they  can't,  let  them  get 
somebody  to  translate  it  for  them." 

"  Many  people  who  are  quite  familiar  with  French  are  no 
good  for  us.  It  is  our  misfortune  that  anyone  who  cannot  speak 
German  decently  is  at  once  made  a  man,  especially  if  he  mangles 
English.  The  old  man  (I  understood  him  to  mean  Meyendorft) 
once  said  to  me,  'Never  trust  an  Englishman  who  speaks  French 
with  a  correct  accent,'  and  I  have  found  that  generally  right. 
But  I  ought  to  except  Odo  Russell." 

He  then  told  the  story  how  old  Knesebeck  once,  to  every- 
body's astonishment,  got  up  to  say  something  in  the  State 
Council.  After  he  had  stood  there  a  while,  without  saying  any- 
thing, somebody  coughed.  "I  beg,"  he  said,  "that  you  will  not 
interrupt  me,"  after  which,  and  after  standing  another  couple 
of  minutes,  he  said,  in  a  sorrowful  way,  "I  have  really  forgot- 
ten what  I  had  to  say,"  and  sat  down. 

The  conversation  turned  on  the  subject  of  Napoleon  III.,  and 
the  Chief  said  he  was  not  a  man  of  large  views.  "  He  is,"  he 
went  on,  "a  far  kindlier  man  than  he  usually  gets  credit  for, 
but  nothing  like  the  clever  fellow  he  used  to  be  thought." 
"  That  reminds  me,"  said  Lehndorf,  *'  of  a  criticism  of  the  First 
Napoleon — a  good  fellow,  but  stupid."  "  No,"  said  the  Chief, 
seriously,  "  in  spite  of  what  we  may  think  about  the  coii,p  d'etat, 
he  is  really  kindly,  a  man  of  feeling,  even  sentimental  j  but 


The  Chancellor's  Opinion  of  Napoleon  III.      281 

neither  his  intelligence  nor  his  information  is  much  to  speak  of.- 
He  is  especially  poor  in  geography,  though  he  \\-as  brought  up- 
in  Germany  and  went  to  school  there,  and  he  lives  in  a  world 
of  all  sorts  of  fantastic  ideas.  In  July  he  kept  buzzing  round 
and  round  for  three  days  without  being  able  to  decide  on  any- 
thing, and  even  now  he  does  not  know  what  lie  wants.  His 
knowledge  is  of  that  sort  that  he  would  cei-tainly  be  plucked 
in  an  examination  for  admission  to  the  bar.  Xobody  would 
believe  it  when  I  said  so,  long  ago.  So  far  back  as  1654  and 
1855  I  told  the  King  so.  He  has  absolutely  no  idea  how  things 
are  in  Germany.  When  I  was  Miaister,  I  had  an  interview 
with  him  in  Paris.  He  then  said  that  things  could  not  go  on 
long  as  they  were  doing,  that  there  would  be  a  rising  in  Berlin, 
and  a  revolution  in  the  whole  country,  and  that  the  King  would 
have  everj'body  voting  against  him  in  a  plebiscite.  I  told  him 
that  the  people  in  our  country  were  not  barricade-builders,  and 
that  in  Prussia  revolutions  were  only  made  by  the  kings.  If 
the  King  could  stand  the  strain  on  him  for  three  or  four  years — 
and  I  allowed  that  there  was  one,  the  estrangement  of  the  public 
being  very  painful  and  disagreeable  to  him — he  would  certainly 
win  his  game.  Unless  he  got  tired  and  left  me  in  the  lurch,  I 
would  not  fail  him.  If  he  were  to  appeal  to  the  people,  and 
put  it  to  the  vote,  he  woiild  even  now  have  nine-tenths  of  them 
in  his  favor.  The  Emperor,  at  the  time,  said  of  me,  '  Ce  n'est 
pas  un  homme  serieux '  ( "  He  is  not  a  man  of  consequence  ") — 
a  mot  of  which  I  did  not  think  myself  at  liberty  to  remind  him 
in  the  weaving-shed  at  Donchery." 

Count  Lehndorf  asked  if  we  need  be  in  any  apprehension 
about  Bebel's  and  Liebknecht's  imprisonment,  and  whether  it 
would  cause  much  excitement.  "No,"  said  the  Chief,  "there 
is  nothing  to  be  afraid  of."  Lehndorf  said,  "  But  Jacoby's  case 
caused  great  disturbance  and  lamentation."  The  Chief  said, 
"  He  was  a  Jew,  and  a  Konigsberg  man.  Touch  a  Jew,  and  a. 
howl  is  raised  in  every  nook  and  corner  of  the  earth — or  a  free- 
mason. Besides,  they  interfered  in  a  public  meeting,  which 
they  had  no  right  to  do."  He  spoke  of  the  Konigsberg  people 
as  always  quarrelsome,  and  inclined  to  go  into  opposition,  and 
Lehndorf  said,  "  Yes,  indeed,  Manteuffel  understood  Konigsberg 
well  when  he  said  in  ^s  address,  '  Konigsberg  continues  to  be — 
Konigsberg.'" 

Somebody  remarked  that  people  began  letters  to  Favre  with 
"  Monsieur  le  ilinistre,"  and  the  Chief  said,  "  Next  time  I  must 
19 


282        Bisinarck  in  the  Franco-German  War. 

address  him  as  '  Hochwohlgeborner  Heir '  ( '  Eight  Honorable 
Sir')."  Out  of  that  grew  a  long  Byzantine  discussion  about 
titles  of  honor,  and  the  expressions,  Excellency,  Right  Honor- 
able, and  Honorable.  The  Chancellor's  views  and  opinions  were 
decidedly  anti-Byzantine.  "We  ought  to  give  up  the  whole 
thing,"  he  said.  "  In  private  letters  I  never  use  them  at  aU 
now,  and  officially  I  call  councillors  down  to  the  third  class, 
Eight  Honorables." 

Pfuel  remarked  that  in  legal  documents  also  these  high-sound- 
ing addresses  were  omitted.  "  You  are  to  appear  on  such  a  day 
at  such  a  place."  *'  Neither  are  these  legal  addresses  quite  my 
ideal.  A  trifle  would  make  them  perfect.  They  should  say,  '  You 
are  to  appear,  you  scoundrel,  on  such  a  day  at  such  a  place.' " 

Abeken,  who  is  a  Byzantine  of  the  purest  water,  said  that  it 
had  been  already  taken  very  ill  in  diplomatic  circles  that  people 
sometimes  were  not  given  their  proper  titles,  and  that  "  Eight 
Honorable  Sir  "  was  not  proper  below  councillors  of  the  second 
class.  "  And  lieutenants,"  cried  Count  Bismarck -Bohlen.  "  I 
shall  quite  do  away  with  it  among  our  people,"  said  the  Minister  ; 
"  there  is  an  ocean  of  ink  wasted  over  it  annually  ;  and  the  tax- 
payer is  justly  entitled  to  complain  of  the  extravagance.  I  am 
quite  content  when  I  am  addressed  simply  as  the  Minister-Presi- 
dent Count  von  Bismarck.  I  beg  you,"  turning  to  Abeken, 
"  to  draw  up  a  proposition  on  the  subject  for  me.  It  is  a  useless 
pigtail,  and  I  wish  it  to  be  dropped."  Abeken  the  cutter-off  of 
pigtails — what  a  dispensation  ! 

/Saturday,  December  24- — Christmas  Eve  in  this  foreign  land  ! 
It  is  very  cold,  as  it  was  both  yesterday  and  the  day  before.  I 
telegraph  that  with  two  divisions  ManteufFel  yesterday  defeated 
Faidherbe,  the  general  of  the  French  army  of  the  ISTorth,  which 
is  reckoned  at  60,000  men,  and  compelled  him  to  i-etreat. 

At  dinner,  Lieutenant-Colonel  von  Beckedorff  is  the  Chief's 
guest,  so  old  a  friend  of  his  that  they  "  thou  "  each  other.  On 
the  table  stands  a  miniature  Christmas  tree,  a  span  high,  and 
beside  it  a  case  with  two  cups,  one  in  the  Eenaissance  style  and 
one  of  Tula  work.  They  are  both  presents  from  the  Countess 
to  her  husband.  Each  holds  only  two  good  drinks.  The  Count 
sent  them  round  the  table  for  inspection,  and  said,  "  I  am  really 
silly  about  cups,  although  there  is  no  sense  in  such  a  fancy.  As 
these  come  from  home,  if  you  bring  them  under  my  eye  when  I 
am  away  from  the  country,  nothing  in  the  town  will  trouble  me 
any  longer." 


The  Trojans  and  the  Greeks.  283 

Then  he  said  to  Beckedorff  that  his  promotion  had  surely 
been  slow,  and  added,  "  Had  I  been  an  oflScer — and  I  wish  I 
had  been — I  should  have  had  an  army  now,  and  we  should  not 
have  b»en  stuck  here  outside  Paris." 

This  remark  was  followed  by  further  discussion  of  the  conduct 
of  the  war,  during  which  the  Chief  said,  "  It  is  sometimes  not 
so  much  the  generals  as  the  soldiers  themselves  that  begin  our 
battles  and  take  direction  of  them.     It  was  the  same  with  the 
Trojans  and  the  Greeks.     Two  combatants  launched  words  of 
scorn  at  each  other,  they  came  to  blows,  spears  were  thrown, 
others  rushed  up,  who  also  threw  their  spears  and  dealt  their 
blows,  and  out  of  all  this  came  a  battle.     The  fore-posts  first 
fire  at  each  other  needlessly,  others  cluster  up  to  them  when 
things  are  getting  brisk — at  first  a  subaltern  in  command  of  a 
few  men,  then  the  lieutenant  with  more,  after  him  the  regiment, 
last  of  all,  the  general  and  his  whole  army.     It  was  in  that  way 
that  the  battle  of  Gravelotte  came  about,  which  was  meant  for 
the  1 9th.     It  was  different  at  Vionville.    They  had  to  fling  them- 
selves on  the  French  lines  there  as  a  mastiff  flies  at  a  terrier." 
Beckedorff  then  told  us  how  he  had  been  t^vice  wounded  at 
Worth,  once  between  the  neck  and  the  shoulder-blade,  certain- 
ly he  believed,  by  an  explosive  bullet,  and  another  time  in  the 
knee.     He  had  dropped  off  his  horse  on  the  ground.     As  he 
lay  there  a  Zouave  or  a  Turco,  leaning  against  a  tree,  took  de- 
liberate aim  at  him,  and  the  bullet  grazed  his  head.     Another 
of  these  half-savages,  he  said,  had  thrown  himself  into  a  ditch 
during  the  flight  of  the  French,  and  when  our  men  had  passed  by 
without  finding  him,  he  got  out  and  shot  at  them  from  behind. 
Some  of  them  turned  back  to  run  after  him,  and  one  of  them,  as 
it  was  impossible  to  fire  on  account  of  our  own  troops,  knocked 
him  down.     In  that  way  they  mastered  and  killed  him.     "  There 
was  not  the  least  reason  for  his  firing,  for  nobody  had  meddled 
with  him  in  his  ditch,"  said  the  narrator  ;  "  it  was  the  mere  pas- 
sion for  murder." 

The  Chief  recalled  other  stories  of  the  barbarity  of  the 
French,  and  asked  Beckedorff  to  write  his  case  down  for  him, 
and  to  allow  the  doctors  to  examine  medically  into  the  evidence 
about  the  explosive  bullet.  Then  he  began  to  talk  about  coun- 
try life,  saying  that  he  was  not  fond  of  hilly  country,  both  be- 
cause of  the  usually  confined  prospect  in  the  valleys,  and 
because  of  the  going  up  and  down  hill.  "  I  like  the  level 
country  better,"  he  said,  "  though  it  need  not  be  quite  as  flat  as 


284        Bismarck  in  the  Franco-Gernian  War. 

at  Berlin;  but  little  heights,  with  pretty  trees  in  leaf,  and 
swift  clear  brooks,  such  as  we  have  in  Pomerania,  and  especial- 
ly on  the  Baltic  coast."  From  which  he  diverged  to  the  diflPer- 
ent  Baltic  watering-places,  mentioning  some  as  extremely  agree- 
able and  others  as  dull. 

After  dinner  I  went  out  for  a  couple  of  turns  in  the  avenue 
made  by  the  rows  of  trees  before  our  street.     Meanwhile  they 
were  getting  up  their  Christmas  tree  in  the  dining-room,  and 
Keudell  was  showering  about  cigars  and  gingerbread.     As  I 
came  back  too  late  for  the  festivity,  my  presents  were  sent  up 
to  my  room.     I  then  read,  as  I  do  regularly  no^\-,  all  that  has 
been  done  during  the  day  in  the  way  of  minutes  and  despatches. 
Afterwards  I  was  called  to  the  Chief  twice  over,  one  time  im- 
mediately after  the  other,  and  then  a  third  time.     There  are  to 
be  several  articles  about  the  horrible  way  in  which  the  French 
are  carrying  on  the  war,  not  merely  the  Francs-tireurs  but  the 
regular  troops,  who  violate  the  provisions  of  the  Convention  of 
Geneva  almost  daily,  and  appear  to  remember  and  claim  the 
execution  of  only  so  much  of  it  as  seems  advantageous  to  the 
French.     I  am  to  dwell  on  the  firing  on  flags  of  truce,  on  the 
ill-usuage  and  looting  of  doctors,  sick  carriers,  and  hospital  as- 
sistants,  on   the  killing  of  the  wounded,  the  misuse  of  the 
Geneva  band  by  the  Francs-tireurs,  the  use  of  explosive  bullets 
(as  in  Beckedorffs  case),  the  treatment  contrary  to  the  law  of 
nations,  of  ships  and  crews  of  the  German  merchant  navy,  cap- 
tured by  French  cruisers.     I  am  then  to  add,  that  the  present 
Government  of  France  is  chargeable  with  a  great  deal  of  the 
blame  of  these  things.     It  was  they  who  let  loose  on  us  a 
.people's  war,  and  who  are  now  unable  to  control  the  passions 
they  have  kindled,  which  carry  people  beyond  all  public  rights 
and  all  custom  of  war.     On  them,  therefore,  rests  the  respon- 
sibility for  all  the  severity  with  which  we  have  been  compelled 
to  act  in  France  upon  our  rights  as  combatants,  against  our 
own  wishes,  and,  as  the  wars  in  Schleswig  and  Austria  prove, 
contrary  to  our  natural  inclinations. 

In  the  evening,  about  ten,  the  Chief  receives  the  Iron  Cross 
of  the  first  class.  Abeken  and  Keudell  had  been  already  made 
happy  in  the  afternoon  by  the  second  class  of  the  same  Order. 
Sunday,  December  25. — In  the  morning  it  is  again  cold,  but 
Abeken  goes  notwithstanding  to  hear  sermon  in  the  chapel  of 
the  chateau.  Tlieiss  pointed  out  to  us  his  coat  with  the  cross 
on  it,  and  said,  "  The  Privy  Councillor  won't  certainly  wear 


Drvnkvng  and  Cards.  285 

his  cloak  to-day."  In  the  Bureau  we  learn  that  Cardinal  Bon- 
nechose,  from  Rouen,  proposes  to  come  here.  He  and  Persigny 
want  the  summoning  of  the  whole  Legislative  Body,  and,  per- 
haps even  more  urgently,  of  the  Senate,  which  is  made  up  of 
calmer  and  maturer  elements,  to  deliberate  on  peace.  It  ap- 
pears, moreover,  to  be  certain  that  people  are  in  earnest  about 
the  bombardment  of  Paris,  which  will  take  place  in  a  very  few 
days  now.  So  at  least  we  understand  the  King's  order,  just 
issued,  appointing  Lieutenant-General  v^n  Kameke,  at  present 
commanding  the  14th  Division  of  Infantiy,  to  the  supreme 
command  of  the  Engineers,  and  Major-General  Prince  Hohen- 
lohe-Ingelfingen  to  the  supreme  command  of  the  siege  artillery. 

Monday,  December  26.- — That  on  Boxing-day  of  the  year '70, 
I  should  be  eating  genuine  Saxon  Christmaii  cake  in  a  private 
house  in  Versailles  is  what  I  should  have  refused  to  credit,  if 
all  the  twelve  minor  prophets  had  told  me  of  it  beforehand. 
Yet  this  morning  I  had  a  large  slice  of  one,  a  gift  from  Abeken's 
liberality.  He  has  received  a  box  with  these  sorts  of  baked 
things  from  Germany. 

Except  for  indispensable  work ,  to-day  was  a  complete  holi- 
day. The  weather  was  not  so  cold  as  it  had  been,  but  as  clear 
as  yesterday.  About  three  there  was  brisk  tiring  again  from 
the  forts.  Perhaps  they  have  had  a  note  of  the  fact  that  we  are 
pretty  nearly  ready  to  reply  to  them  ?  Last  night  they  certainly 
fired  fiercely  for  a  while  out  of  their  big  mouths  of  thunder. 

Waldersee  was  with  us  at  dinner,  and  the  subjects  spoken  of 
were  almost  wholly  military. 

At  length  the  conversation  turned  on  the  power  of  drink- 
ing a  good  deal,  and  the  ]Minister  said  :  "  Once  I  never  thought 
of  the  amount  I  was  drinking.  What  things  I  used  to  do — 
the  heavy  -wines,  especially  the  Burgundies  !"  The  conversation 
then  turned  on  cards,  and  he  said  that  he  used  formerly  to  do 
a  great  deal  in  that  way,  and  that  once  for  instance,  he  had 
played  twenty  rubbers  at  whist,  one  after  the  other,  "equal  to 
seven  hours  of  time."  He  only  took  an  interest  in  it  when  the 
play  was  high,  but  high  play  was  not  for  the  father  of  a  family. 
The  discussion  rose  out  of  the  Chief's  happening  to  say  that  he 
had  called  somebody  a  "  Eiemchenstecher ;"  and  after  asking 
whether  any  of  us  understood  it,  he  explained  the  word  as  fol- 
lows :  "  Riemchenstechen  is  an  old  game  of  soldiers ;  and  a  Riem- 
chenstecher  is  not  exactly  a  rogue,  but  a  crafty  and  subtle  sort 
of  person. 


286        Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War. 


CHAPTER  XV. 

FIRST  WEEKS   OF   THE  BOMBABDMENT, 


AT  last,  at  last !  On  December  27  the  long-desired  bom- 
bardment of  Paris  began  on  the  east  side  of  the  city. 
As  what  follows  will  show,  we  knew  nothing  at  first  about  it, 
and  even  afterwards  our  fire  made  an  impression  of  great  power 
only  on  certain  days.  One  very  soon  got  used  to  it — it  never 
distracted  our  attention  from  trifles,  and  never  long  interrupt- 
ed the  course  of  our  talk  or  the  flow  of  our  thoughts.  The 
diary  will  tell  us  more  about  it  in  due  time. 

On  Tuesday,  from  early  morning  till  well  into  the  day  there 
was  a  heavy  snowfall  with  tolerably  hard  frost.  In  the  morn- 
ing the  man-servant  attached  to  the  Chancellor's  ofiice,  who  at- 
tended on  Abeken  and  me,  told  me  about  our  old  privy  council- 
lor, whom  he  evidently  considered  to  be  a  Catholic  ;  "  He  reads 
his  prayers  in  the  morning.  I  believe  they  are  in  Latin.  He 
reads  them  quite  loud  out,  so  that  I  hear  them  often  in  the 
ante-room.  Probably  it  is  the  Mass."  He  added  that  Abeken 
was  of  the  opinion  that  the  heavy  thundering  of  cannon  which 
had  been  going  on  in  the  distance  since  seven  o'clock  was  pro- 
bably the  beginning  of  the  bombardment. 

I  wrote  several  letters  with  instructions  for  articles.  After 
twelve  I  telegraphed,  by  the  Chief's  command,  to  London  that 
the  bombardment  of  the  outworks  of  Paris  began  this  morning. 
Mount  Avron.  a  work  near  Bondy,  seems  to  be  the  first  point 
aimed  at  by  'Sflr  artillery,  and  the  Saxons  have  had  the  privilege 
of  firing  the  first  shot.  The  Minister  stays  the  whole  day  in 
bed,  not  because  he  is  particularly  unwell,  but,  as  he  says,  be- 
cause he  cannot  keep  himself  reasonably  warm  in  any  other 
way.     He  did  not  come  to  dinner. 

The  Bonapartists  appear  to  have  become  very  active  and  to 
have  great  plans.     Persigny  and  Palikao  want  us  to  neutralize 


An  American  Lady's  Christmas  Card.        287 

Orleans,  to  let  the  Corps  Legislatif  be  summoned  there,  to  put 
the  question  to  it,  Whether  it  wishes  a  Republic  or  a  Monar- 
chy, and  if  it  votes  for  a  monarchy,  which  Dynasty  it  prefers. 
We  shall  wait  a  little  yet  before  that,  till  greater  dejection 
makes  people  even  more  pliable  than  at  present.  Bonnechose, 
the  archbishop  of  Roiien,  wants  to  make  an  attempt  to  nego- 
tiate a  peace  between  Germany  and  France.  He  was  at  one 
time  a  jurist,  and  later  in  life  became  a  clergyman.  He  is  sup- 
posed to  be  an  intelligent  man,  and  is  on  terms  ^vith  the 
Jesuits.  For  himself  he  is  a  Legitimist,  though  he  holds 
Eugenie  in  great  respect  for  her  piety.  He  was  an  eager  cham- 
pion of  the  Infallibility  dogma,  and  expects  to  be  Pope,  and  so 
indeed  he  has  some  prospect  of  being.  According  to  what 
several  people  say,  he  hopes  to  induce  Trochu,  with  whom  he 
is  acquainted,  to  agree  to  the  surrender  of  Paris,  provided  we 
renounce  our  terrritorial  claims ;  In  place  of  making  them  we 
might,  the  archbishop  thinks,  require  that  Nice  and  Savoy 
should  be  given  back  to  Victor  Emmanuel,  and  then  compel 
him  to  restore  their  territories  to  the  Pope,  the  Duke  of 
Tuscany,  and  the  King  of  Naples.  Thus  we  should  acquire  the 
credit  of  being  the  champions  of  order  and  the  restorers  of 
right  all  over  Europe.     What  a  comical  plan  !  * 

The  Chief  has  given  orders  for  the  most  stringent  measures 
against  Nogent-le-Roi,  where  a  surprise  by  the  Francs-tireurs 
was  supported  by  the  population ;  he  has  also  refused  to  receive 
the  petition  of  the  mayor  and  municipality  of  Chatillon,  for  a 
remission  of  the  fine  of  a  million  francs,  imposed  on  them  be- 
cause sometliing  of  the  same  sort  happened  there.  His  prin- 
ciple in  both  cases  is,  that  the  people  in  the  country  districts 
must  be  made  to  realize  what  war  is,  so  as  to  incline  them  to 
think  of  peace. 

Wednesdiiy,  December  28, — A  snowfall,  and  moderate  cold. 
The  Chief  does  not  leave  his  room  to-day  either.  He  gives  me 
a  letter  in  French  to  do  what  I  like  with,  which  "  an  Ameri- 
can "  lady  had  sent  him  on  the  25th  December.  It  says  : 
"  Count  von  Bismarck, — Enjoy  the  pleasant  climate  of  Ver- 
sailles as  much  as  you  can,  Count,  for  one  day  you  will  have  to- 
endure  the  flames  of  hell  for  all  the  misfortunes  you  havo 
caused  France  and  Germany."  That  is  all.  It  is  not  easy  to 
see  the  lady's  object  in  writing  the  letter. 

The  French  papers  make  out  that  nearly  every  German 
soldier  is  uncertain  about  the  duties  imposed  on  him  by  the 


*:i8S        Bismarck  in  the  Franco-Gei^ian  War. 

eighth  commandment.  According  to  a  notice  issued  by  the 
prefect  of  the  Department  of  tlie  Seine  and  Oise,  there  must 
be  exceptions,  and  very  splendid  exceptions,  even  to  this  rule. 
It  says :  "  The  public  is  informed  that  the  follo^dng  objects 
have  been  found  by  the  soldiers  of  the  German  army  :  (1)  In 
the  house  of  the  notary  Maingot,  at  Thyais,  which  is  now 
standing  empty,  at  the  corner  of  the  street  leading  to  Versailles 
and  to  Grignon,  a  packet  containing  valuables  estimated  at 
100,000  francs  (£4,000).  (2)  At  Choisy-le-Roi,  in  a  house  in 
the  Rue  de  la  Raffinerie,  No.  29,  deserted  by  one  of  the  in- 
habitants, a  packet  with  valuable  papers.  (3)  On  the  road 
from  Palaiseau  to  Versailles  a  purse  of  money  with  ten  Prus- 
sian thalers  (thirty  shillings),  and  several  small  French  and 
German  coins.  (4)  In  the  deserted  house  of  M.  Simon,  at 
Ablon,  two  packets  with  nearly  3,00C  francs  in  them.  (5)  In 
the  garden  of  M.  Duhuy,  adjunct  at  Atliis,  a  box  ^vith  railway 
shares  and  other  valuable  papers.  (6)  In  the  deserted  house  of 
M.  Dufosse,  at  Choisy-le-Roi,  Rue  de  Villiers,  No.  12,  papers  of 
the  value  of  7,000  francs.  (7)  In  the  convent  at  Hay  11,000 
francs  worth  of  valuable  papers.  (8)  In  a  house  deserted  by 
its  owner,  on  the  Bank  of  the  Seine,  at  Saint-Cloud,  a  paclcot 
with  valuable  papers.  (9)  In  a  deserted  house  at  Brunoy  a 
small  mantelpiece  clock."  (A  kind  of  thing  which,  according 
to  the  assertions  of  the  French  journals,  we  are  particularly 
fond  of  packing  up  and  carrying  away  with  us.)  "  (10)  In  the 
garden  of  the  house  near  the  church,  at  the  corner  of  the  street 
between  Villoneuve-le-Roi  and  the  churchyard  of  Orly,  several 
articles  of  jewellery  of  antique  and  of  modern  Avorkmanship. 
(11)  In  the  gai'den  near  the  conservatory  of  the  Chateau 
ilouge,  at  Fresnes-les-Rungis,  a  milk-pail  containing  articles  in 
gold  and  silver,  drafts  payable  to  bearer,  and  other  things." 

Thurs-Jay,  December  29. — Much  snow,  and  not  much  cold. 
The  Minister  remains  in  bed  as  he  did  yesterday,  but  continues 
to  work,  and  there  does  not  seem  to  be  very  much  wrong  with 
him.  He  tells  me  to  telegraph  that  the  First  Army,  in  pusuit 
of  Faidherbe,  has  pushed  forward  to  Bapaume,  and  that  Mont 
Avron,  which  was  under  fire  yesterday — thiii;y  or  forty  guns 
were  employed  in  bombarding  it — has  ceased  to  reply.  At 
breakfast  we  learn  that  the  Saxon  artillery  had  four  men  killed 
and  nineteen  wounded  during  yesterday  and  the  day  before. 

In  the  afternoon  Granville's  despatch  to  Loftus  about  the 
r)ismarck  circular  on  the  Luxembura;  afi'air  was  translated  for 


Tlie  JSevj  Gerrnan  Constitution.  289 

tlie  King.  I  then  studied  official  dociunents.  About  the  middle 
of  October  a  memorial  was  sent  from  Coburg  to  the  Chief, 
proposing  a  new  constitution  for  Germany.  Among  its  sug- 
gestions is  one  pointing  to  the  restoration  of  the  dignity  of 
Emperor,  and  to  the  ultimate  substitution  for  the  Confedera- 
tion Council  of  Confederation  Ministries,  and  the  creation  of  a 
United  Council  of  the  Empire  out  of  representatives  of  the 
Governments  and  delegates  from  the  district  Parliaments.  The 
Chief  answered  that  it  had  long  been  contemplated  to  carry 
out  one  of  the  ideas  involved  in  these  proposals.  He  must 
guard  himself  against  the  suggestion  about  Confederation  Min- 
istries and  the  Council  of  the  Empire,  as  he  considered  that  it 
might  stand  in  the  way  of  any  other  new  arrangements.  .  .  . 
From  Brussels  we  are  informed  that  the  King  of  the  Belgians 
is  well  disposed  to  us,  but  that  he  sees  no  way  of  interfering 
with  the  press  in  his  own  country,  which  is  hostile  to  Germany. 
The  Grand  Duke  of  Hesse  has  gone  so  far  as  to  say  that  Elsass 
and  Lothringen  must  become  Prussian  provinces.  -  Dah\dgk,  on 
the  other  hand,  who  is  as  much  against  us  as  ever,  wants  the 
provinces  which  are  to  be  taken  from  France  to  be  incorporated 
with  Baden,  which  could  give  the  district  of  Heidelberg  and 
Mannheim  to  Bavaria,  so  as  to  restore  the  connection  with  the 
Palatinate  on  the  left  bank  of  the  Rhine.  In  Rome  the  Pope 
wiU  undertake  "  mediation  "  between  us  and  France. 

About  ten  the  Minister  sent  for  me.  He  was  lying  on  a 
sofa  before  the  fire,  covered  with  a  blanket.  He  said,  "  Well, 
we  have  it."  "What,  your  Excellency f  "Mont  Avron." 
He  then  showed  me  a  letter  from  Count  Waldersee,  to  say  that 
the  fort  was  occupied  this  afternoon  by  the  troops  of  the 
Twelfth  Army  Corps,  who  had  found  there  numerous  gun-car- 
riagr-s,  rifles,  and  munitions  of  war,  and  many  dead  bodies. 
The  Minister  said,  "  I  hope  there  is  no  mine  there  to  blow  up 
the  poor  Saxons."  I  forwarded  the  account  of  this  first  success 
by  telegraph  to  London,  in  cipher,  for  fear  the  general  staff 
might  take  offence. 

Friday,  December  30. — The  bitter  cold  of  the  last  few  days 
continues.  The  Chief  still  keeps  his  room,  on  account  of  ill- 
ness, and  is  mostly  in  bed.  In  the  morning,  at  his  request,  I 
telegraph  fresh  details  about  the  occupation  of  Mont  Avron, 
and  about  the  shameful  bribe  offered,  according  to  official  ad- 
missions, V)y  the  Government  of  Toui-s  to  tempt  the  captive 
French  officers  to  break  their  word  of  honor.     I  wrote  aiticlcs 


290        Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War. 

also  for  the  German  press,  and  one  fur  the  Jl^oniteur  here,  o» 
this  subject,  much  as  follows  : 

We  have  several  times  taken  occasion  to  point  out  the  depth 
of  degradation  in  the  ideas  certain  statesmen  and  officers  of  the 
French  army  entertain  on  the  subject  of  military  honor.  A 
communication  which  reaches  us  from,  a  good  source,  proves 
that  we  had  not  yet  realized  how  deeply  this  evil  is  seated,  and 
how  widely  it  has  spread.  We  have  before  us  an  official  decree 
issued  by  the  French  Ministry  of  War  from  the  5th  bureau  of 
the  6th  division,  and  which  is  headed  Solde  el  revues,  dated 
Tours,  November  13,  and  signed  by  Lieutenant-Colonel  Alfred 
Jerald,  and  by  Colonel  Tissier,  the  Cliief  of  the  general  staff 
of  the  17th  army  corps.  This  document,  which  refers  also  to 
another  issued  on  November  10,  promises  a  reward  in  money 
to  all  French  officers  without  exception,  who,  being  now  prison- 
ers in  Germany,  can  make  their  escape.  We  say  without  ex- 
ception— that  is,  to  those  officers  even  who  have  given  their  word 
of  honor  not  to  attempt  to  escape.  The  bribe  offered  for  such 
a  shameless  proceeding  is  1,750  francs  (£70).  This  fact  needs 
no  comment.  It  will  probably  excite  indignation  throughout 
France.  Honor,  the  most  precious  possession  of  every  Ger- 
man officer — and,  duty  and  justice  compel  us  to  add,  in  old 
days  of  every  Frencli  officer  also — is  regarded  by  the  men 
whom  the  4th  of  September  raised  to  power,  as  a  matter  of 
sale  and  pui'chase,  and  at  a  very  moderate  rate  too.  In  this 
way  French  officers  will  be  driven  to  see  that  France  is  no  longer 
directed  by  a  Government,  but  by  a  business  house  of  loose 
principles  in  the  matter  of  honesty  and  decency,  trading  under 
the  name  of  Gambetta  and  Co.  "  Who  will  buy  our  goods  :  any 
words  of  honor  for  sale  V 

Afterwards  I  sent  off  a  short  article  on  a  mistake  which 
cropped  up  again  in  the  Kolnische  Zeitmig  on  the  occasion  of 
tin-  despatch  sent  by  the  Chancellor  to  Vienna.  The  great 
Rlicnish  newspaper  s.ays :  "Since  1S6G  we  have  been  among 
tliope  who  have  incessantly  entreated  Vienna  at  one  time,  and 
Berlin  at  another,  to  be  done  Avith  their  mutual  jealousies, 
which  then  became  meaningless,  and  to  di*aw  as  close  as  possi- 
ble one  to  the  other.  We  have  often  regretted  the  personal 
ri  ^alry  between  Bismarck  and  Beust,  which  appeared  to  be  an 
oh'-tacle  to  this  reconciliation,"  &c.  My  answer  was:  "We 
have  already  liad  occasion  repeatedly  to  notice  that  the  Kolnische 
2titung  perpetually  attributes  what  the  Chancellor  does  and 


Bismarch  and  BevM.  291 

leaves  undone  to  personal  motives,  personal  likes  or  dislikes, 
inclinations,  or  ill-tempers,  and  we  find  here  a  new  proof  of 
this  unjustifiable  prejudice.  We  cannot  make  out  how  people 
can  keep  coming  forward  continually  with  such  suspicions. 
We  know  this,  however,  that  there  is  no  personal  rivalry  be- 
tween the  Chancellor  of  the  K^orth  German  Confederation  and 
the  Imperial  Chancellor  of  Austro-Hungary ;  that  the  two 
statesmen  were  on  a  very  good  footing  with  each  other  before 
1866,  when  they  often  came  into  personal  relationship,  as 
Count  Bismarck  has  mentioned  several  times  in  the  North  Ger-* 
man  Reichstag.  Since  that  they  have  had  no  private  inter- 
course to  create  bitterness,  for  the  simple  reason  that  they  have 
had  none  at  all.  If  they  have  been  hitherto  more  or  less  op- 
posed to  each  other  as  statesmen,  the  reason  is  no  secret.  They 
have  been  the  representatives  of  different  political  systems,  en- 
deavoring to  realize  diflferent  political  ideals  between  which  it. 
is  not  easy  to  find  a  point  of  reconciliation,  though  it  may  not 
be  absolutely  impossible.  This  and  nothing  else  is  the  explana- 
tion of  what  the  Kolnische  Zeitung  tries  to  explain  through 
personal  motives,  by  which  no  statesman  of  the  present  day  is 
less  influenced  in  feeling  or  action  than  the  Chancellor  of  the 
Confederation.  Ijet  us  take  the  opportunity  to  remark  that 
Count  Bismarck  has  never  been  utterly  wrong,  as  the  Rhine 
paper,  echoing  the  opinion  of  a  Yienna  paper,  says  he  has,  and 
that  indeed  he  has  never  been  wrong  at  all  about  the  resist- 
ance of  Paris.  He  was  never  asked  about  it,  but  we  know  from 
the  best  sources  that  he  considered  the  taking  of  the  city  in 
less  than  several  months  a  very  diflficult  thing,  and  that  he  was. 
against  investing  it  before  the  fall  of  Metz." 

Saturday,  December  31. — Everybody  here  is  out  of  sorts.  I 
myself  begin  to  be  languid,  and  will  have  to  cut  down  the 
nightwork  my  diary  requires,  or  to  break  it  off  altogether  for 
a  couple  of  days.  The  severe  frost,  too,  from  which  the  fire 
protects  one  only  partially,  disinclines  mc  to  sit  up  long  after 
midnight,  as  I  have  been  in  the  habit  of  doing. 

Gambetta  and  his  colleagues  in  Bordeaux  grow  every  day 
more  violent  in  their  capa/jity  of  dictators.  The  Empire  itself, 
against  the  arbitrary  action  of  which  they  used  to  protest,  was. 
scarcely  so  despotic,  and  would  hardly  have  set  aside  lawful  in- 
stitutions or  arrangements  as  summarily  or  autocratically  as 
these  republicans  of  the  purest  water.  MM.  Cremieux,  Gambetta, 
Glais-Bizoin,  and  Fourichon,  issued  a  decree  on  December  25, 


292        Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War. 

in  which,  with  reference  to  previous  notices,  it  is  summarily 
enacted  that  "the  Genei'al  Councils  and  Councils  of  Ai-rondisse- 
ment  are  dissolved,  as  well  as  the  departmental  commissions, 
where  they  have  been  established.  For  the  general  councils  de- 
partmental commissions  are  to  be  substituted,  which  are  to 
consist  of  as  many  members  as  the  Department  contains  can- 
tons, and  are  to  be  appointed  by  the  Government  on  the  pro- 
posal of  the  prefect."  Where  we  are,  naturally  nothing  of  the 
kind  will  happen.  I  send  the  decree  to  be  printed  to  the  editors 
ftf  the  Moniteur. 

Monday^  January  2. — The  languor  and  the  cold  both  con- 
tinue. The  Chief  is  stUl  unwell.  So  are  Hatzfeld  and  Bis- 
marck-Bohlen.  Gambetta's  war,  d,  outrance,  is  to-  be  carried  on 
now  with  the  assistance  of  a  sort  of  Arabian  Francs-tireurs. 
What  will  M.  de  Chaudordy,  who  recently  complained  of  us  as 
barbarians  to  the  Great  Powers,  say  to  the  article  in  which  the 
Independance  Algerienne  explains  the  views  these  savage 
hordes  entertain  of  what  is  permitted  in  war,  or  which  it  tries 
to  inspire  in  them?  Several  journals  in  France  itself  openly  ap- 
prove, for  they  have  reprinted  this  absolutely  brutal  article 
without  a  word  of  remonstrance,  and  if  they  can  venture  to  do 
so,  we  may  assume  that  they  reckon  on  the  approval  of  their 
readers. 

Tuesday,  January  3. — The  idea  that  the  wide  dispersion  of 
the  German  armies  over  the  North  and  South-West  has  its 
dangers,  and  that  concentration  is  called  for  finds  supporters 
elsewhere  also.  The  Vienna  Presse,  for  instance,  has  just  pub- 
lished a  memoir,  from  a  military  critic,  which  represents  a 
concentration  of  our  troops  at  present  in  France  as  essential  if 
v/e  want  to  avoid  their  being  broken  in  detail,  so  as  to  hinder 
and  diminish  our  offensive  power.  The  author  points  to  a 
concentration  of  our  troops  within  a  cu-cle  of  from  seAeuty  to 
ninety  miles  round  Paris.  Then  the  French  armies,  gathering 
together  from  all  quarters  to  raise  the  siege,  would  be  met  and 
and  shattered  by  the  whole  force  of  the  German  armies.  Even 
the  gigantic  and  hitherto  uninterrupted  streams  of  force  which 
Germany  has  sent  out,  are  not  sufficient,  says  our  military 
critic,  simultaneously  to  do  all  the  work  which  the  Germans 
have  undertaken.  The  wish  to  accomplish  it  all  at  the  same 
time  must  lead  to  a  dispersion  of  the  army  corps  full  of  all  kinds 
of  risks,  a  state  of  afiairs  the  more  serious  as  long  marches  in 
scvero  winter  v,'eather  weaken  and  waste  the  men.     The  article 


Everybody  iimvell.  293 

accordingly  warns  us  against  large-looking  military  enterprises 
like  advances  on  Havre  and  Lyons,  and  recommends  the  esta- 
blishment of  entrenched  camps  at  a  suitable  distance  from 
Paris,  and  the  destruction  of  the  railroads  outside  the  circle  of 
these  camps,  so  that  the  districts  of  France  in  the  circumference 
not  yet  occupied  by  us  should  become  incapable  of  communicat- 
ing with  each  other  except  by  shipping. 

This  renunciation  of  any  further  advance  and  concentration 

of  the   German  fighting  power  is  recommended  also  by  the 

•Natiotial  Zeitung,  in  an  article  which  expresses  even  better 

than  that  I  have  quoted,  the  ideas  of  certain  people  here  in 

Versailles. 

Friday,  January  6. — Till  yesterday  the  cold  was  very  intense, 
I  believe  as  much  as  nine  or  ten  degrees  below  zero.     With  it 
there  was  generally  fog,  which  was  particularly  dense  on  Wed- 
nesday.    The  Chief  has  been  unwell  almost  the  whole  week. 
Yesterday  he  drove  out  a  Kttle  in  the  afternoon  for  the  :first 
time,  and  again  to-day.     Hatzf eld  and  Bohlen  are  ill.     My  own  - 
depression  of  spirits  and  disinclination  for  work  have  only  begun 
to  diminish  to-day,  probably  because  I  have  had  two  nights  of 
abundant  sleep,  and  perhaps  also  on  account  of  the  improvement 
in  the  weather  ;  for  the  mist,  which  changed  this  morning  into 
hoar  frost  and  hangs  in  sparkling  crystals  on  the  branches  of 
the  trees,  has  been  followed  by  a  fine  day,  though  portions  of 
its  withdrawing  veil  still  hang  about  the  wooded  heights  be- 
tween this  and  Paris.     Thus  we  commence  a  new  life,  like  our 
guns,  which  have  been  doing  little  work  these  last  few  days  on 
account  of  the  mist,  but  which  have  begun  to  shoot  away  brisk- 
ly enough.     I  may  best  insert  here,  perhaps,  a  few  notes  for 
my  diary,  which  have  been  omitted.     In  the  interval  the  Upper 
Governmental  Councillor  Wagner  has  been  my  fellow-worker  in 
the  oflB.ce,  and  a  Baron  von  Holnstein,  who  is  I  believe,  a  secre- 
tary of  legation,  also  came  in.     Among  the  articles  I  sent  out 
during  the  last  six  days  there  was  one  on  the  measure  which 
detached  great  numbers  of  railway  carriages  from  the  objects 
and  necessities  of  German  industry  for  the  purpose  merely  of 
bringing  up  provisions  for  the  time  when  Paris,  after  being  really 
starved  out,  will  be  compelled  to  surrender.     I  described  such  a 
proceeding  as  humane,  but  impracticable  and  impolitic,  as  the 
Parisians,  when  they  learn  they  are  provided  for  outside,  will  hold 
out  till  their  last  crust  of  bread  or  joint  of  horse,  so  that  all  our 
humanity  will  end  only  as  a  kind  of  contribution  towards  the 


-2d4i        Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War. 

protraction  of  the  siege.     It  is  not  our  business,  by  establishing 
magazines  or  supplying  means  of  transport  for  reprovisioning 
the  city,  to  avert  the  danger  of  famine  which  menaces,  the 
Parisians.     It  is  their  business  to  do  so  by  capitulating  at  the 
proper  time.     Yesterday  I  translated  into  German  for  the  King 
two  English  protests  against  the  sinking  of  English  coal  vessels 
at  Rouen,  which  our  troops  had  considered  a  necessary  measure. 
Early  this  morning  I  telegraphed,  accordiiig  to  advices  from 
the  general  staff,  to  London,  but  the  result  of  the  bombardment 
directed  for  three  days  past  against  the  forts  on  the  Eastern 
front,  and  since  yesterday  also  against  those  on  the  Southern 
front,  has  been  very  satisfactory,  and  that  our  loss  is  quite  in- 
considerable.    Yesterday  I  again  visited  the  officers  of  the  46  th, 
who  have  established  themselves  in  the  farmhouse  of  Beaure- 
gard, and  made  themselves  extremely  comfortable  with  furni- 
ture which  they  have  sent  in  from  Bougival.     To-day  I  visited 
with  "Wagner  the  point  of  view  I  have  several  times  spoken  of 
at  Ville  d'A^Tay,  and  from  it  we  watched  the  bombardment. 
Wagner  has  found  accommodation  not  far  from  us  at  the  comer 
of  the  Rue  de  Provence  and  the  Boulevard  de  la  Reine,  in  the 
main  door  flat  of  a  Frenchman,  under  all  sorts  of  oil  paintings. 
Paris  seemed  to  be  on  fire  in  two  places  and  white  clouds  of 
smoke  were  rising.     In  the  evening  I  read  despatches  and  also 
minutes.  It  appears  that  2800  axles  have  been  required  from  the 
German  railway  for  wagons  for  collecting  provisions  for  Paris. 
The  Chief  protested  energetically  against  this  measure  as  politi- 
cally  disadvantageous,   seeing  that   the    Parisian   authorities, 
knowing  that  provisions  have  been  collected  for  them  outside, 
can  delay  their  surrender  till  the  very  last  possible  moment,  by 
using  up  every  scrap  in  the  city  .     Bonnechose  has,  at  the  sug- 
gestion of  the  Pope,  written  a  letter  to  King  William,  from 
whom  he  wants  peace,   an  '^honorable"  peace,  one  that  is  to 
say,  without  any  surrender  of  territory,  such  as  we  might  have 
had  twelve  weeks  since  from  M.  Favre,  if  the  Chief  had  not 
preferred  one  that  was  advantageous.     Prince  Napoleon  is  to 
come  to  Versailles  to  mediate.     He  is  a  talented  and  estimable 
man,  but  not  of  much  considei-ation  in  France.     In  the  London 
Conference  on  the  Black  Sea  question  we  are  to  support  the 
Russian  claims  with  all  our  strength. 

Saturday,  January  7. — We  have  now — perhaps  have  had 
for  the  last  few  days — a  body-guard  of  bright  green  Landwehr 
riflemen,  oldish  men  with  long  wild  beards.     They  are  said  to 


Bougival  in  Ruins.  295 

be  all  admirable  shots.  On  the  suggestion  of  H.  that  there 
might  possibly  be  something  found  of  political  importance  in 
Odillon  Barrot's  house  at  Bougival,  Bucher  and  I  took  a  car- 
i-iage  there  this  morning.  The  weather  was  dull  and  cold. 
Mist  drizzled  down  on  us.  We  first  sought  out  H.  at  Beaure- 
gard to  get  him  to  describe  to  us  the  exact  position  of  Barrot's 
villa.  Our  drive  took  us  by  all  sorts  of  defence  preparations, 
walls  pierced  with  loop-holes  for  shot,  half-wrecked  country 
houses,  a  ruined  nursery  garden,  and  so  on,  down  the  hill 
*of  Saint-Cloud  into  the  valley  under  La  Celle,  where  the  long 
street  of  Bougival  lies  with  its  pretty  church.  On  the  way 
through  the  town  we  were  told  we  should  see  soldiers,  as  no 
<;ivilian  had  been  allowed  to  peep  behind  the  windows  of  the 
houses,  the  population  having  had  notice  to  quit  after  the  last 
sortie,  or  the  last  but  one,  in  this  direction. 

In  the  middle  of  the  village,  where  two  streets  cross  at  the 
little  square,  and  where  the  Prussian  sentry  stood,  we  left  the 
carriage,  and  asked  the  sergeant-major  in  command  to  supply 
us  with  a  soldier  as  guide  and  companion.  We  first  passed 
the  druggist's  shop,  frightfully  wi-ecked  ;  near  it  a  sentry  had 
been  posted  to  protect  the  entrance  to  the  immense  deposit  of 
wines  discovered  here  some  weeks  ago.  We  then  crossed  a 
strong  barricade  which  bars  the  outlet  of  the  street  in  this 
direction  towards  the  Seine.  It  consists  of  barrels  and  casks 
filled  with  earth  and  stones,  and  all  sorts  of  house  furniture. 
Then  we  looked  for  the  house  of  which  we  were  in  search,  in 
the  narrow  street  leading  to  Malmaison.  In  it  also  there  were 
several  barricades  with  ditches,  and  the  side  lane  which  leads 
down  from  the  middle  of  it  to  the  left  towards  the  river  con- 
tained several  more.  The  houses  here,  too,  all  of  them  unoc- 
cupied, and  most  of  them  damaged  by  shells,  were  prepared 
for  defence.  There  was  very  little  furniture  left.  We  man- 
aged to  pass  the  first  barricade  in  the  street  by  going  in  on  some 
boards,  turning  to  the  left  through  the  window  of  the  house 
next  it,  and  out  through  the  house  door  on  the  other  side  of 
the  ditch  of  the  barricade.  We  passed  a  second  small  fortifi- 
cation to  the  right  in  a  similar  way. 

Where  the  street  opens  on  the  high  road  by  the  river,  the 
pavement  of  which  was  torn  up,  we  saw  before  us  a  third  sys- 
tem of  barricades  and  ditches.  It  was  the  "musical"  barricade, 
described  so  frequently  by  the  correspondents  of  German  and 
foreign   newspapers,  with  no  fewer    than  six   cottage  pianos 


296        Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War. 

stowed  away  in  it.  We  could  not  look  after  them  particularly, 
as  at  this  point  we  dared  not  show  our  heads  outside  for  fear 
of  the  Gauls  on  Mont  Valerien,  who  would  have  been  ready 
for  us  immediately  with  half-a-dozen  of  their  shells.  Here  I 
discovered,  three  or  four  houses  further  on,  the  little  green  bal- 
cony which  H.  had  mentioned  as  indicating  Barrot's  house,  for 
which  we  were  looking,  but  we  were  not  allowed  to  approach 
it  in  front,  the  sentry  who  was  posted  here  allowing  nobody  to 
pass.  So  we  had  to  work  round  by  the  back,  and  a  narrow 
foot-path  between  the  houses  and  gardens  enabled  us  to  do  so. 
In  the  steeply-sloped  gardens  behind  the  row  of  houses,  all  sorts 
of  pieces  of  furniture  were  standing  or  lying  about,  and  among 
them  a  desolate-looking  chair  in  red  plush,  soaked  through  with 
snow  and  rain,  with  only  one  leg  left.  Books  and  papers  were 
strewn  plentifully  round.  After  entering  several  houses,  every 
one  of  which  was  terribly  wrecked,  we  found  the  one  we  were 
looking  for.  A  board  across  a  deep  ditch  conducted  us  first 
into  a  room  foil  flowers.  From  it  we  passed  into  the  library, 
which  consisted  of  two  rooms.  There  might  be  a  couple  of 
thousand  volumes,  most  of  them  lying  on  the  floor  in  confused 
masses,  possibly  the  work  of  the  Mobiles  and  the  Francs- 
tireurs,  who  wrecked  the  suyrounding  neighborhood  before  the 
investment  of  Paris.  Many  of  them  were  torn  or  trodden 
under  foot.  Looking  through  the  books,  we  saw  that  it  had 
been  a  well-selected  library,  with  books  of  history,  politics, 
belles-lettres,  and  some  English  books  ;  but  there  was  noth- 
ing of  the  description  of  what  H.  had  conjectured  we  might 
find. 

Sunday,  January  8. — In  the  morning  I  telegraphed  the 
victory  at  Vendome,  and  an  account  of  the  progress  of  the 
bombardment,  and  then  wrote  for  the  Moniteur  a  note  on  the 
lying  spirit  of  boasting  in  which  Faidherbe  had  once  more 
claimed  a  victory  over  our  troops,  the  fact  being  that  he  had 
been  again  compelled  to  retreat. 

These  last  few  days  the  Chief  appears  to  be  allowing  his 
beard  to  grow.  Delbriick  tells  us  at  breakfast  that,  in  1853, 
he  was  in  North  America,  and  got  as  far  as  Arkansas.  In  the 
afternoon  Prince  Hohenlohe  was  with  the  Chief,  to  inform  him 
of  the  progress  and  success  of  the  bombardment,  probably  on 
account  of  his  remonstrances. 

In  the  afternoon  I  read  a  report  of  La  France  on  the  state 
of  health  of  Paris  and  sent  it  to  the  Moniteur.     According  to 


Drunkennesa  in  Paris.  297 

it,  the  deaths  in  the  week,  from  the  11th  to  17th  December, 
rose  to  the  enormous  number  of  2728.  Small-pox  and  typhus 
especially,  had  carried  away  many  people.  Mortification  is 
extending  in  the  hospitals.  The  doctors  complain  of  the  bad 
effects  of  alcoholism  on  the  sick,  which  makes  slight  wounds 
serious,  and  which  appears  to  be  dreadfully  common  among  the 
soldiers  in  Paris.  Their  statement  concludes  with  these 
words  :  "  On  this  occasion  we  must  remark,  as  we  have  done 
so  often,  that  the  crime  of  drunkenness,  in  its  gi'ossest  form 
(lorognerie  Crapuleuse),  is  on  the  increase  in  Paris,  and  neither 
the  doctors  nor  we  need  an  order  of  the  day  signed  by  Trochu 
and  Clement  Thomas  to  prove  it,  or  to  make  us  groan'  over  it 
Yes,  we  must  say  once  more  that  the  blush  mounts  to  our  fore- 
heads when  we  see  men  every  day,  to  whom  the  country  has 
entrusted  its  defence,  lowering  and  disgracing  themselves  by 
shameful  potations.  Can  we  wonder  at  all  the  unfortunate 
accidents  which  have  happened  through  the  careless  use  of  guns, 
at  the  disorders,  the  insubordination,  the  deeds  of  violence,  the 
plunderings  and  wreckmgs  which  are  reported  every  day  by 
the  public  newspapers,  at  a  time  when  the  country  is  in  mourn- 
ing, when  a  hostile  fate  is  heaping  defeat  after  defeat  on  this 
unfortunate  land,  and  visiting  us  with  redoubled  blows  without 
intermission  and  without  pity  1  People  are  indeed  of  a  frivol- 
ous kind,  who  are  simple  enough  to  believe  that  this  frightful 
war  will  infallibly  reform  our  manners  and  make  new  men  of 
us." 

At  dinner  the  Chief  again  spoke  of  his  youth,  especially  of 
his  earliest  recollections,  one  of  which  related  to  the  burning  of 
the  Berlin  theatre.  "  I  was  then  hardly  three  years  of  age.  It 
was  in  the  Gendarmes  Market,  on  the  Mohrenstrasse,  opposite 
the  Hotel  de  Brandebourg,  at  the  corner  of  the  street,  one 
story  up,  that  my  parents  then  lived.  I  myself  remember 
nothing  of  the  conflagration,  which  I  must  have  seen,  but  I 
know,  perhaps  only  because  I  have  often  heard  the  story  told, 
that  we  raised  ourselves  on  the  chairs  and  on  my  mother's 
se^ving- table,  a  step  or  two  in  front  of  the  windows.  As  the 
fire  progressed  I  mounted  up  there,  putting  my  hands  on  one 
side  of  the  window-panes  and  pulling  them  back  at  once,  be- 
cause they  were  so  hot.  Afterwards  I  went  to  the  right  win- 
dow, and  it  was  just  the  same.  I  remember,  too,  that  I  once 
ran  away  because  my  elder  brother  had  used  me  badly.  I  got 
as  far  as  the  Linden,  where  they  caught  me.  I  ought  to  have 
20 


298        Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War. 

been  -whipped  for  it,  but  somebody  interceded  for  me,  and  I  got 
off." 

He  then  told  us  that  from  his  sixth  to  his  twelfth  year  he 
was  in  Plahmann's  Institute,  one  of  the  educational  establish- 
ments on  the  principles  of  Pestalozzi  and  Jahn,  and  that  he 
had  nothing  but  unpleasant  recollections  of  the  time  he  wasted 
there.  At  that  time  an  artificial  Spartanism  was  the  rule.  He 
never  had  enough  to  eat,  except  when  he  was  occasionally 
invited  out.  At  the  Institute  they  always  got  "  elastic  "  flesh, 
not  exactly  hard,  but  so  that  the  teeth  could  not  easily  manage 
it,  and  parsnips.  "  I  would  have  been  glad  to  eat  them  raw, 
but  they  were  boiled  ;  and  there  were  hard  potatoes  in  the 
dish,  four-cornered  bits." 

The  conversation  next  turned  on  the  luxuries  of  the  table, 
and  the  Chief  expressed  himself  vigorously  about  his  likings 
for  different  kinds  of  fish.  He  always  liked  fresh  lampreys. 
He  was  very  fond  of  snipe-fish  and  Elbe  salmon,  just  the  pro- 
per mean  between  Baltic  salmon  and  Rhine  salmon  "which  is 
too  fat  for  me."  He  then  spoke  of  the  dinners  given  at  bankers' 
houses,  where  nothing  is  counted  good  unless  it  is  dear.  "They 
won't  have  carp,  because  in  Berlin  it  is  a  moderately  low-priced 
fish.  They  prefer  perch,  which  cannot  be  brought  there  with- 
out difliculty."  For  my  own  part  I  don't  care  for  perch,  and 
I  never  liked  Pomeranian  salmon  ( Maraetien),  the  flesh  of 
which  is  flabby.  On  the  other  hand,  he  could  eat  sea  lampreys 
(Muraeiien)  every  day  :  "I  like  them  almost  better  than  trout, 
and  I  don't  care  for  any  trout  but  those  of  moderate  size,  say 
half-pounders.  The  big  ones,  which  are  common  in  Frankfort 
at  these  dinners,  and  which  usually  come  out  of  the  Heidelberg 
Wolfspring,  are  not  worth  much,  but  they  are  dear  enough,  so 
that  they  must  be  on  the  table." 

The  conversation  then  turned  on  the  Arc  de  Triomphe  at 
Paris,  which  was  compared  with  the  Brandenburg  Gate.  The 
Chief  said  that  the  latter  was  very  fine  in  its  way.  "I  have, 
however,  advised  them  to  remove  the  sentry-boxes  at  the  side, 
so  as  to  show  it.  It  would  then  be  reckoned  even  a  finer  thing 
than  now,  as  it  is  shut  in  and  partly  hidden." 

While  we  were  smoking  our  cigars  he  said  to  Wagner,  speak- 
ing of  his  old  journalistic  experiences  :  "  I  remember  that  my 
first  newspaper  article  was  upon  hunting.  I  was  then  nothing 
more  than  a  rough  country  squire.  Somebody  had  Avritten  a 
spiteful  article  on  hunting.     My  huntsman's  blood  warmed  at 


Prince  Napoleons  Plan.  299 

this,  and  I  set  myself  to  and  wrote  an  answer,  which  I  forward- 
ed to  the  editor,  Altvater.  It  was  unsuccessful.  He  answered 
me  very  politely,  but  said  it  did  not  suit,  and  he  could  not  take 
it.  I  was  in  a  rage  that  anybody  should  claim  the  right,  or 
be  allowed  the  privilege  of  attacking  sportsmen  without  their 
being  allowed  to  contradict  him  ;  but  that  was  the  way  at  the 
time." 

In  the  evening  I  was  told  to  send  the  following  article  from 
the  Francais  to  the  English  press  and  to  the  Moniteur:  "From 
different  quarters  we  are  informed  of  acts  of  violence  by  certain 
battalions  of  the  Mobilised  National  Guard,  the  proofs  of  which 
we  hold  at  the  disposal  of  General  Clement  Thomas.  Accord- 
ing to  our  accounts,  these  battalions  have  allowed  themselves, 
at  Mofttrouge  and  Arcueil,  to  wreck  private  houses,  to  break 
the  window  panes,  to  plunder  the  cellars,  and  needlessly  to 
burn  expensive  pieces  of  furniture.  In  Montrouge  a  collection 
of  rare  copper-plate  engravings  was  conynitted  to  the  flames. 
Acts  of  this  sort  demand  the  interference  of  the  authorities. 
General  Trochu's  proclamation  of  the  26th  December,  in  which 
he  announces  the  estabKshment  of  courts-martial,  was  placarded 
all  over  the  neighborhood  of  Paris.  That  threat  of  repressive 
measures  ought  surely  not  to  be  allowed  to  lie  dormant  in  view  of 
such  plundering  and  insubordination. "  The  article  finally  express- 
es a  wish  for  an  inquiry  into  the  following  incident :  "  On  the  1 6th 
December  the  men  of  a  battalion  of  the  National  Guard,  then 
stationed  at  ArcueU,  are  said,  on  their  way  back  to  Paris,  to 
have  sold  to  shopkeepers  in  the  neighborhood  a  number  of  ob- 
jects, the  results  of  their  plundering  in  that  town.  They  were 
mostly  copper  kitchen-vessels."  It  would  be  well  that  people  in 
Versailles  and  its  neighborhood,  as  well  as  in  England,  should 
know  these  facts,  so  that  after  the  peace  they  may  not  charge 
these  disorderly  proceedings  on  our  soldiers. 

Monday,  January  9. — The  weather  was  cold  and  foggy,  and 
a  good  deal  of  snow  fell.  There  was  very  little  firing,  either 
from  our  side  or  the  enemy's ;  but  during  the  night  our  fire 
was  very  violent.  We  learn  from  London  that  Prince  Napol- 
eon is  going  about  with  a  plan,  proposing  to  sign  a  peace  on 
his  own  authority,  which  we  might  accept,  and  after  the  capitu- 
lation of  Paris  to  summon  the  Senate  and  the  Legislative  Body, 
to  lay  the  treaty  of  peace  before  them  for  ratification,  and  to  ask 
them  to  vote  upon  it,  on  the  form  of  the  future  Government, 
and  ultimately  on  the  future  dynasty. 


300        Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War. 

Vinoy  and  Ducrot  are  said  to  be  in  favor  of  this  plan.  On 
the  other  hand,  the  Orleanists  are  moving,  and  they  hope  to 
win  Thiers  to  their  side. 

In  the  afternoon  I  sent  a  telegram  about  the  further  success- 
ful progress  of  the  bombardment.  When  I  laid  it  before  the 
Chief,  he  struck  out  the  passage  in  which  I  had  mentioned 
that  our  shells  had  fallen  into  the  garden  of  the  Luxembourg, 
as  "  impolitic." 

The  following  pleasant  story  is  going  the  round  of  the  news- 
papers. It  first  appeared  in  the  Leipziger  Tagehlatt,  as  taken 
from  a  private  letter  of  a  German  officer.  "One  day  Adjutant- 
Major  Count  Lehndorff  paid  a  visit  to  Captain  von  Strantz,  at 
the  outposts  in  Ville  d'Avray  in  Paris.  He  asked  him  how 
things  were  going  with  him,  and  von  Strantz  answered,  *  Capi- 
tally ;  for  I  have  just  come  from  my  dinner,  where  I  have  been 
eating  my  sixty-seventh  leg  of  mutton.'  The  Count  laughed, 
and  after  some  time  went  away.  Next  day  the  guard  brought 
the  captain  the  following  communication  :  '  As  his  Excellency 
Chancellor  Count  Bismarck  has  been  informed  that  Captain  von 
Strantz  is  about  to  have  his  sixty-eighth  leg  of  mutton  this 
afternoon,  he  takes  the  liberty  to  send  him  four  ducks  for  his 
dinner,  as  a  little  variety.' "  This  anecdote  has  the  advantage 
over  others  in  the  newspapers,  that  it  is  substantially  true,  only 
the  Count  did  not  appear  quite  the  next  day  Lehndoi-ff  was 
dining  with  us  some  days  before  Christmas. 

The  Chief  again  appeared  at  dinner,  shaven  as  usual.  He 
spoke  first  of  Count  Bill  having  received  the  Iron  Cross,  and  he 
seemed  to  think  that  it  would  have  been  better  to  have  given  it 
to  his  elder  son,  who  was  wounded  in  the  cavalry  charge  at 
Mars-la-Tour.  "  That  was  an  accident,"  he  remarked  ;  "others 
who  were  not  wounded  may  have  been  quite  as  brave,  but  it  is 
a  sort  of  compensation  to  the  wounded.  I  remember  when  I 
was  a  young  man,  that  a  certain  von  R.,  who  had  received  the 
Cross,  used  to  go  about  Berlin.  I  wondered  what  he  could 
have  done,  but  I  learned  afterwards  that  he  was  the  nephew 
of  a  Minister,  and  that  he  had  been  acting  as  equerry  to  the 
general  staff. 

Delbriick  remembered  the  man  too,  and  told  us  that  he  had 
afterwards  cut  his  throat,  in  consequence  of  an  inquiry  about 
difficulties  in  some  bill  transactions. 

"In  Gottingen,"  the  Chief  went  on,  "I  once  called  a  student 
a  'Dumme  Junge'  (a  'stupid  fellow').     He  demanded  an  ex- 


Shooting  Pkeaaarvts  in  self-defence.  301 

planation,  and  I  said  that  I  had  no  wish  to  insult  him,  but 
merely  intended  to  express  my  conviction  as  to  the  fact." 

When  the  venison  and  the  sauer-kraut  were  on  the  table, 
somebody  remarked  that  the  Minister  had  not  gone  out  shooting 
for  a  long  time,  though  there  was  plenty  of  game  in  the  woods 
between  this  and  Paris. 

"Yes,"  he  said;  "but  something  always  ha[p«>:«d  to  inter- 
rupt me.  The  last  time  was  at  Ferrieres,  whm  th-^  King  was 
away.  He  had  forbidden  us  to  shoot  in  the;  p^rk.  We  went 
out  accordingly,  but  not  in  the  park,  and  there  way  plonty  to 
sboo^,  but  not  much  was  shot,  as  either  the  cartridges  or  the 
fowling  pieces  were  poor."  Holnstein,  who  u.siially  shows  him- 
-elf  an  uncommonly  estimable,  most  industrioun,  and  service- 
•.ble  person,  thereupon  remarked,  "Thi&  is  the  way,  your  Ex- 
.•ellency,  that  people  tell  the  story.  They  say  that  you  were 
well  aware  of  his  Majesty's  command,  and  naturally  anxious  to 
;'espect  it.  You  had  gone  out  for  a  walk,  wlu  n  you  had  the 
iusfortune  to  have  three  or  four  pheasants  suddenly  flying  at 
our  head,  so  that  you  were  compelled  to  shoot  them  in  self- 
lefence." 

The  French  Rothschild  was  mentioned,  and  then  we  spoke 
of  the  German  Rothschild,  of  whom  the  Chief  told  us  a  divert- 
ing story  from  his  own  experience. 

The  conversation  turned  ultimately  upon  elegant  literature. 
Somebody  spoke  of  Spielhagen's  Problematische  Mnlur^M,  which 
he  Chancellor  had  read,  and  of  which  he  thought  not  unfavor- 
tbly,  remarking,  "I  will  certainly,  however,  not  read  it  a  second 
time,  I  have  no  time  here  for  that."  But  even  a  much-occu- 
pied Minister  may  take  a  book  in  his  hand,  and  allow  him.sr'lf 
the  luxury  of  a  couple  of  hours  with  it  before  he  has  to  go  back 
to  his  documents.  Somebody  then  spoke  of  Councillor  Freitiig's 
Soil  und  Habeii,  and  praised  the  description  of  the  Polish  dis- 
turbance, and  the  accounts  of  the  balls  with  the  young  girls, 
but  the  guests  appeared  to  think  his  heroes  insipid.  Somebody 
.said  that  they  had  no  passion,  somebody  else  that  they  had  no 
soul.  Abeken  who  took  eager  part  in  the  conversation,  made 
the  remark  that  he  could  not  read  any  of  these  things  twice, 
and  that  most  of  the  better  known  new  writers  had  published 
only  one  good  book.  "Well,''  said  the  Chief,  "I  will  allow 
you  that  three-fourths  of  Goethe's  works  are  good ;  I  do  not 
care  for  the  rest,  but  I  should  not  mind  being  shut  up  a  long 
while  on  a  desert  island  with  seven  or  eight  of  his  forty  vol- 


302        Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War. 

umes.*'  Finally  somebody  spoke  of  Fritz  Renter.  "  Yes,"  said 
the  Minister,  "  Aus  der  Franzosenzeit  is  very  pretty,  but  it  is 
not  a  novel."  Somebody  then  mentioned  the  Stromtid.  "H'm," 
said  he,  "that  is  as  one  finds  it;  that  is  certainly  a  novel — 
plenty  that  is  good,  much  that  is  middling — but  the  country 
people  are  exactly  as  they  are  described  there." 

In  the  evening  I  translated  a  long  article  from  the  Times  for  the 
King,  going  into  full  details  about  the  situation  in  Paris.  After- 
wards, at  tea-time,  Keudell  spoke  cleverly — and  indeed,  charm- 
ingly— about  certain  qualities  in  the  Chancellor  which  remind- 
ed him  of  Achilles — his  genial,  youthful  nature ;  his  easily  ex- 
cited temperament ;  the  deep  sympathies  which  he  not  infre- 
quently manifests ;  his  inclination  to  take  himself  away  from 
the  pressure  of  business,  and  his  victorious  way  of  carrying 
things  through.  Certainly  we  had  Troy  still  with  us,  as  well 
as  Agamemnon,  the  shepherd  of  the  people, 

Tuesday,  January  10. — The  cold  was  moderate,  and  it  was 
cloudy,  so  that  one  could  not  see  far ;  the  sky  and  earth  were 
filled  with  snow.  Only  now  and  then  a  shot  was  to  be  heard 
from  our  batteries,  or  from  the  forts.  Count  Bill  was  with  us, 
and  about  one  o'clock  in  the  day  General  Manteufifel.  They  were 
passing  through  to  the  army  which  is  to  operate  in  the  south- 
east against  Bourbaki,  and  which  Manteufiel  is  to  command. 

In  the  afternoon  I  telegraphed  twice  to  London — the  retreat 
of  Chanzy  upon  Le  Mans,  with  the  loss  of  1000  men  in  prison- 
ers, and  Werder's  successful  resistance  against  the  overwhelm- 
ing forces  of  the  French,  who  were  pressing  forward  to  the 
relief  of  Belfort,  and  attacked  hifli  at  Villersexel.  At  dinner 
we  spoke  first  of  the  bombardment,  and  the  Chief  said  that 
most  of  the  Paris  forts,  with  the  exception  of  Mont  Yalerien, 
were  little  worth,  hardly  better  than  the  fortifications  at  Diip- 
pel.  The  fosses,  for  instance,  were  only  of  moderate  depth,  and 
the  enceinte,  too,  used  to  be  very  weak. 

The  conversation  then  turned  upon  the  International  Peace 
Association,  and  its  connection  with  the  Social  Democracy,  the 
head  of  which,  for  Germany,  was  Karl  Marx,  in  London. 
Bucher  said  that  he  was  a  very  able  man,  with  a  good  scientific 
training,  and  was  the  real  leader  of  the  International  Work- 
men's Society.  Speaking  of  the  International  Peace  Associa- 
tion, the  Chief  said  that  its  efibrts  were  of  very  serious  impor- 
tance, and  that  its  real  objects  were  altogether  different  from 
peace.     Communism  was  hiding  behind  it. 


ATdi-French  Ancestors.  303 

The  conversation  then  turned  to  Count  Bill,  and  the  Chief  re- 
marked, "He  appeared  at  a  distance  like  an  elderly  staff  oflB.cer, he 
is  so  stout."  Somebody  spoke  of  his  luck  in  being  ordered  to 
accompany  Manteuffel.  It  would  only  be  a  temporary  position 
for  both  of  them,  but  he  would  see  a  great  deal  of  the  war. 
"Yes,"  said  the  Chief,  "He  is  learning  something  for  his  age.  In 
our  days  not  much  could  be  learned  at  eighteen.  I  would  have 
needed  to  have  been  bom  in  1795  to  have  had  the  chance  of 

fighting  in  1813.     Since  the  battle  at "  (I  could  not  catch 

the  name,  but  it  was  some  battle  during  the  wars  of  the  Hugue- 
nots that  appeared  to  be  meant),  "there  is  not  one  of  my  an- 
cestors who  has  not  drawn  sword  against  France :  my  father, 
for  instance,  and  three  of  his  brothers,  and  my  grandfather,  at 
Rossbach.  My  great-grandfather  fought  against  Louis  XIV., 
and  his  father  also  against  Louis  XIY.,  in  the  battles  on  the 
Ehine,  in  1672  or  1673.  Several  of  us  fought  in  the  Thirty 
Years'  War,  on  the  Emperor's  side,  and  others  for  the  Swedes. 
Finally,  there  was  one  who  was  with  the  Geymans  who  fought 
for  the  Huguenots  as  hired  troops.  One  of  them — his  portrait 
is  at  Schonhausen — was  an  original.  I  have  a  letter  from  him 
to  his  brother-in-law,  in  which  he  says  :  — '  The  cask  of  Rhine 
wine  has  cost  me  thirty  reichsthalers.  If  my  brother-in-law 
thinks  it  too  dear,  I  will,  so  may  God  preserve  me,  drink  every 
drop  of  it  myself.'  Then  again,  '  If  my  brother-in-law  asserts 
so-and-so,  I  hope  I  may,  so  may  God  preserve  me,  get  some  day 
closer  to  him  than  he  will  like,'  and  in  another  place  :  '  I 
have  spent  12,000  reichsthalers  on  the  regiment,  and  I  hope,  so 
may  God  preserve  me,  to  get  it  back  in  time.'  As  for  this  get- 
ting back,  he  probably  meant  it  in  this  way,  that  people  used 
then  to  be  paid  for  the  soldiers  who  were  absent  with  leave, 
and  for  those  who  had  not  yet  presented  themselves  with  their 
regiments.  Certainly  the  commander  of  a  regiment  was  in  a 
different  position  in  those  days."  Somebody  said  that  the  same 
thing,  perhaps,  happened  nearer  our  own  time,  as  long,  in  fact, 
as  the  regiments  were  levied,  paid,  and  clothed  by  the  colonel, 
and  only  hired  by  the  Prince,  and  the  practice  might  possibly 
still  prevail  here  and  there.  The  Chief  answered,  "  Yes,  in 
Russia,  for  example,  in  the  big  cavalry  regiments  in  the  south- 
em  districts,  which  often  consist  of  sixteen  squadrons.  There 
were  there,  as  there  still  are,  other  sources  of  revenue.  A 
German  once  told  me  this.  He  had  been  appointed  to  a  regi- 
ment, I  believe  somewhere  in  Kursk  or  Woronesch,  one  of 


304        Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War. 

those  rich,  districts.  The  farmers  came  to  him  with  carts  laden 
with  straw  and  hay,  and  hoped  their  '  little  father '  would 
graciously  receive  them.  '  I  did  not  know,'  said  he  '  what  they 
wanted,  so  I  sent  them  away,  and  told  them  to  leave  me  quiet 
and  go  about  their  business.'  Surely  their  *  little  father  '  would 
be  reasonable.  His  predecessor  had  been  quite  contented  with 
this ;  they  could  not  give  more  ;  they  were  poor  people.  At 
last  I  took  the  whole  of  it,  especially  as  they  pressed  me. 
They  fell  on  their  knees,  and  entreated  me  most  graciously  tc 
keep  it,  and  then  I  drove  them  away.  When  others  came,  wl^h 
wagons  laden  with  wheat  and  oats,  I  understood  them,  and 
took  the  present  as  others  took  it,  and  when  the  former  people 
came  back  with  more  hay,  I  told  them  that  they  had  misunder- 
stood me,  that  what  they  had  given  me  before  was  sufficient, 
and  that  they  had  better  take  home  what  they  now  brought 
In  this  way,  as  I  charged  the  hay  and  the  oats  to  the  Govern 
ment  for  the  troops,  I  made  my  20,000  roubles  yearly.'  He 
told  me  this  quite  openly  and  unblushingly  in  a  company  at 
Petersburg,  and  I  had  nothing  to  do  but  to  wonder  at  him." 
"  Yes,  but  what  could  he  have  done  to  the  farmers  1"  askei 
Delbriick.  "  Done  1"  said  the  Chief,  "  he  could  have  done  noth 
ing ;  but  he  could  have  let  them  be  ruined  in  another  way ;  he 
had  only  to  allow  the  soldiers  to  do  anything  they  liked." 

The  conversation  came  back  to  Manteulfel,  and  somebody^ 
said  that  he  had  broken  his  leg  at  Metz,  and  made  himself  be 
carried  into  the  battle.  He  had  wondered  a  good  deal,  some 
body  remarked,  that  nobody  knew  anything  about  it  here.  Cer 
tainly,  he  must  have  thought  how  badly  we  were  informed 
about  the  chief  events  of  the  war.  "  I  remember,"  said  thf 
Chief,  in  the  course  of  further  conversation,  "  once  sitting  with 
Manteuffel  and "  (name  unintelligible)  "on  the  stone  be- 
fore the  church  at  Beckstein.  The  King  came  past,  and  I  pro- 
posed to  greet  him  as  the  three  witches  did  :  '  Hail,  Thane  of 
Lauenburg  !  All  hail,  Thane  of  Kiel !  All  hail,  Thane  of 
Schleswig ! '  It  was  at  the  time  I  concluded  the  Treaty  of 
Gastein  with  Blome.  That  was  the  last  time  in  my  life  that  I 
played  piquet,  though  I  had  given  up  play  a  long  while  before. 
I  played  so  recklessly  that  the  rest  could  not  help  wondering  at 
me,  but  I  knew  quite  well  what  I  wanted.  Blome  had  heard 
that  piquet  afforded  the  best  possible  opportunity  for  discover- 
ing a  man's  real  nature,  and  he  wanted  to  try  it  on  with  me.  I 
thought  to  myself,  You  shall  have  your  chance.     I  lost  a  coupla 


Jewish  Names.  305 

of  hundred  thalers,  which  I  would  have  been  honestly  en- 
titled to  have  charged  as  spent  in  the  service  of  his  jMajesty. 
I  put  him  all  wrong ;  he  considered  me  a  reckless  fellow,  and 
gave  way." 

The  conversation  then  turned  to  Berlin,  and  somebody  re- 
marked that  it  was  growing  year  by  year  more  of  a  great  city, 
even  in  its  ways  of  thinking  and  feeling,  and  that  that  must 
have  some  effect  upon  its  representatives  in  Parliament.  "  Dur- 
ing these  last  five  years  they  have  certainly  changed  greatly," 
said  Delbruck.  " That  is  true,"  said  the  Chief.  "In  1862, 
when  I  first  had  to  do  with  these  gentlemen,  if  they  had  known 
the  degree  of  heat  to  which  my  contempt  for  them  rose,  they 
would  certainly  never  have  forgiven  me."  ■ 

The  conversation  then  turned  to  the  subject  of  the  Jews,  and 
the  Minister  wanted  to  know  why  the  name  Meier  was  so  com- 
mon among  them.  It  was  of  German  origin,  and  signified 
landowner  in  "Westphalia,  whereas  the  Jews  formerly  had  no 
land  anywhere.  I  replied,  "I  beg  your  Excellency's  pardon, 
but  the  name  comes  from  the  Hebrew.  It  is  in  the  Old  Testa- 
ment, and  in  the  Talmud,  and  signifies  properly  Meir,  some- 
thing connected  with  gold,  light,  splendor,  so  that  it  signifies 
something  like  the  enlightened,  the  illustrious,  the  magnifi- 
cent." The  Chief  went  on  to  say,  "  Then  there  is  the  name 
Kohn,  which  is  very  common  among  them ;  what  may  that 
mean  V  I  replied  that  it  meant  a  priest,  which  was  originally 
Kohen.  "  From  Kohen  came  Kohn,  Kuhn,  Cahen,  and  Kahn, 
and  Kohn  or  Kahn  sometimes  got  transformed  into  Hahn  "  (a 
cock),  a  remark  which  occasioned  some  merriment.  "Yes," 
said  the  Minister ;  "  but  I  am  of  opinion  that  they  are  im- 
proved by  crossing.  The  results  are  not  bad."  He  mentioned 
several  noble  families,  and  remarked,  "All  of  these  are 
clever  and  cultivated  people."  After  a  little  musing,  and  omit- 
ting something  he  had  said  between,  which  probably  referred 
to  the  marriage  of  Christian  girls  of  distinguished  families, 
German  baronesses  and  so  on,  with  rich  or  talented  Jews,  he 
proceeded  to  say :  Probably  it  is  better  the  other  way,  when, 
for  instance,  the  Christian  horse  of  the  German  breed  is  mated 
with  a  Jewish  mare.  The  money  then  circulates,  and  the  race 
produced  is  not  a  bad  one.  I  do  not  know  what  I  may  advise 
my  sons  to  do  some  day." 

The  Roumanians  appear  to  be  in  the^eatest  perplexity,  but 
the  Powers  will  not  help  them.     England  and  Austria  are  at 


306        Bismarck  in  the  Franco-GeTmian  War. 

> 

least  indifferent.  The  Porte  is  not  convinced  that  the  union 
of  the  principalities  would  not  be  injurious  to  it.  France  is  at 
present  out  of  the  question.  The  Emperor  Alexander  has  a  very- 
kindly  feeHng  to  Prince  Charles,  but  will  not  meddle  in  the 
business,  and  there  is  certainly  no  interference  to  be  expected 
from  Germany,  which  has  no  vital  interest  in  Roumania. 
If,  therefore,  the  Prince  cannot  help  himself  out  of  his  trouble, 
the  best  thing  he  can  do  will  be  to  draw  back  before  he  is 
compelled. 

Beust  appears  to  have  entered  into  a  new  phase  of  his 
political  way  of  looking  at  things  in  the  despatch  in  which  he 
replied  to  the  notification  of  the  impending  union  of  the  Ger- 
man South  with  the  North,  and  it  is  possible  that  under  his 
advice  satisfactory  relations  may  be  developed  and  maintained 
between  the  two  newly  organized  powers  of  Germany  and 
Austro-Hungary. 

About  half-past  ten  the  Chief  comes  down  to  tea,  which 
Count  Bill  also  drinks  with  us.  Abeken  returns  from  Court, 
and  brings  the  news  that  the  fortress  of  Peronne  has  capitulat- 
ed, with  its  garrison  of  3,000  men.  The  Chief,  who  was  at  the 
time  looking  at  the  Illustrirte  Zeitung,  sighed,  and  said,  "Three 
thousand  more  !  they  might  at  least  have  drowned  the  com- 
mandant in  the  Seine,  remembering  the  fact  that  he  broke  his 
word  of  honor."  The  remark  gave  rise  to  a  conversation  about 
the  numerous  prisoners  in  Germany,  and  Holnstein  said  it 
would  be  a  good  thing  if  they  could  be  let  out  to  Strousberg 
for  the  railways  he  is  constructing.  "Or  if,"  said  the  Chief, 
"  the  Emperor  or  Russia  could  be  induced  to  settle  them  in  mil- 
itary colonies  in  the  Empire  on  the  other  side  of  the  Caucasua 
They  would  become  adinirable  properties.  These  crowds  of 
prisoners  will  certainly  cause  us  serious  perplexity  after  the 
peace.  They  will  then  have  an  army  ready  made,  and  soldiers 
who  have  had  time  to  rest.  We  can  do  nothing  more  for  them 
but  present  them  with  Napoleon,  who  needs  200,000  Praetor- 
ians to  maintain  himself  in  power."  "  Does  he  really  then  ex- 
pect to  come  back  as  the  governor  of  the  country  ?"  Holnstein 
asked.  "  Yery  much  so,"  said  the  Chief ;  "  extraordinarily  so, 
enormously  so.  He  thinks  day  and  night  of  nothing  else,  and 
the  English  do  the  same." 

Finally  somebody  told  us  what  had  happened  in  Spandau, 
where  people  from  tht  English  embassy  had  behaved  them- 
selves improperly,  and  at  last  violently,  in  front  of  the  place 


The  Empress  and  Peace.  307 

where  the  French  prisoners  "were  kept  in  charge,  and  had  got 
badly  out  of  the  affair. 

Wednesday,  January  11. — It  is  said  that  Clement  Duvemois, 
who  was  formerly  one  of  Napoleon's  ministers,  is  coming  here 
to  treat  for  peace  in  the  name  of  the  Empress.  She  is  said  to 
admit  the  principle  of  territorial  compensation  and  of  the  boun- 
dary which  we  want.  She  will  conseiit  to  pay  the  costs  of  the 
war,  and  allow  us  to  occupy  certain  portions  of  France  with  our 
troops  in  pledge  for  the  money,  and  she  will  promise  to  enter 
into  no  negotiations  for  peace  with  any  power  but  Germany. 
Duvemois  believes  that  though  she  is  not  popular,  she  will 
show  energy,  and  as  lawful  regent  will  have  a  better  position 
and  will  give  us  more  security  than  any  person  who  might  be 
chosen  by  the  representatives  of  the  country  and  who  would 
necessarily  be  entirely  dependent  upon  them.  Is  he  to  be  re- 
ceived or  not  %  Perhaps  he  may,  so  that  the  authorities  in  Paris 
and  Bordeaux  may  note  the  fact,  and  be  more  ready  on  their 
part  to  decide  to  give  in. 

During  dinner  we  spoke  first,  as  we  usually  do  now,  about  the 
bombardment,  and  somebody  said  that  there  was  a  conflagration 
in  Paris.  Somebody  else  remarked,  that  thick  clouds  of  smoke 
could  be  distinctly  seen  there.  The  Chief  said,  "  That  is  not 
enough ;  one  must  first  smell  it  here.  The  conflagration  at 
Hamburg  could  be  smelt  twenty  miles  off." 

Somebody  then  mentioned  the  opposition  of  the  "  patriots  " 
in  the  Bavarian  Chamber  to  the  Versailles  Convention,  and  the 
Chancellor  said,  "  I  wish  I  could  go  there  and  speak  with  them; 
they  have  obviously  lost  their  way,  and  cannot  get  either  for- 
ward or  backward.  I  should  soon  bring  them  right  again,  but 
one  is  so  necessary  here." 

Afterwards  he  spoke  of  all  sorts  of  hunting  adventures  of 
his  own — one,  for  instance,  in  Russia,  where  Holnstein  had 
scared  away  a  bear  which  he  had  rashly  shot  at  ninety  paces. 
Afterwards  the  bear  had  come  up  to  within  twenty  paces,  and 
ogled  the  Chief.  "I  managed  however,"  he  continued,  "to 
shoot  the  brute  so  badly  with  a  conical  bullet,  that  he  was 
afterwards  found  dead  a  little  bit  off. " 

Thursday,  January  12. — Abeken  said  he  had  heard  that  the 
Bavarians  intended  to  storm  one  of  the  forts  on  the  south-east, 
where  our  fire  was  very  feebly  answered.  The  Chief  was  pleas- 
ed, and  added,  "  If  I  were  now  in  Munich  among  the  deputies, 
I  could  easily  put  it  before  them  so  that  they  would  make  no 


308       Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German   War. 

more  difficulties."  Somebody  said  that  it  was  believed  that  the 
King  preferred  the  title  "  Emperor  of  Germany "  to  that  of 
"German  Emperor,"  and  it  was  remarked  that  the  former 
would  be  a  new  title  which,  at  all  events,  had  no  historical 
basis.  Bucher  dwelt  a  great  deal  upon  that  point.  He  said 
that  there  had  never  been  an  Emperor  of  Germany,  and  that 
indeed,  there  had  been  no  German  Emperor  either,  only  a  Ger- 
man King.  Charles  the  Great  had  called  himself  "Imperator 
E-omanorum,"  but  afterwards  the  name  given  to  the  Caesars 
had  been  "Imperator  Romanus  semper  Augustus,"  Enlarger  of 
the  Empire,  and  German  King.  The  Chief  so  expressed  him- 
self as  to  show  that  he  attached  little  importance  to  the  differ- 
ence between  the  titles. 

In  the  evening,  after  nine  o'clock,  it  looked  as  if  a  great  con- 
flagration had  burst  out  in  Paris  towards  the  North.  There 
was  a  peculiar  "shine"  beyond  the  wood,  and  flames  above  the 
horizon  in  that  direction.  Several  of  the  gentleman  came  out 
to  see  it.  Holnstein  looked  out  of  the  window  in  the  cook's 
room,  and  believed  that  the  city  was  really  bjarning ;  so  did 
Wollmann,  but  it  was  probably  a  mistake,  for  the  "  shine"  was 
not  red,  but  whitish.  The  Chief,  who  called  me  up  to  him  to 
give  me  an  order,  and  whom  I  told  about  the  appearance,  said, 
"It  is  possible ;  I  had  already  remarked  it,  but  it  seemed 
to  me  to  be  more  like  the  shine  from  snow.  One  must  first 
smell  it." 

About  eleven  o'clock  at  night  the  King  sends  the  Chief  a  bit 
of  letter  paper,  with  the  words  written  in  pencil  that  we  have 
just  had  a  gi'eat  victory  at  Le  Mans.  The  Minister,  who  was 
obviously  touched  and  delighted  at  this  attention,  handed  me 
the  pap  r,  so  that  I  might  telegra.ph  the  news  saying,  "He 
thinks  that  the  military  authorities  would  not  have  sent  it  to 
me ;  that  is  why  he  writes  himself." 

Afterwards  I  prepared  for  the  King  an  article  from  the 
Norddeutsche  Allgemeine  ZeitUTig,  giving  an  account  of  Roon's 
jubilee.  Before  going  to  bed,  we  learned  that  a  breach  had 
already  been  noticed  in  Port  Issy. 

Friday,  January^  13. — Mist  in  the  morning,  and  blue  sky 
after  twelve  o'clock.  There  was  heavy  firing.  Harless  applied 
to  the  Chief  with  a  petition  on  behalf  of  the  Lutheran  church, 
concluding  with  a  request,  that  in  consequence  of  an  illness, 
which  has  again  attacked  him,  he  should  be  allowed  soon  to  lay 
down  his  pilgrim's  stafi*.     He  and  his  party  want  an  orthodox 


A  Protestant  Pope.  309 

Lutheran  German  National  Church,  that  is  to  say,  that  he  is 
an  enemy  of  the  union,  and  accordingly  of  Prussia,  which  is  for 
the  union.  Recently  he  has  taken  part  with  the  Catholic 
bishops.  His  object  is  a  Protestant  Pope,  and  he  would  like 
the  place  himself. 

The  delegation  in  Bordeaux  has  made  an  attempt  to  induce 
the  Pope  to  ofier  his  mediation  for  peace ;  and  at  Rome  they  do 
not  seem  disinclined  to  take  the  matter  up,  as  they  believe  tliey 
might  give  it  such  a  turn  that  the  Pope  might  come  by  his  own 
again. 

At  dinner  we  had  the  Government  president,  von  Emstliau- 
sen,  a  large-built  man,  still  young.  The  Chief,  who  had  to  dine 
later  with  the  Crown  Prince,  stayed  with  us  only  till  the  Varzin 
ham  came  on  the  table,  saying  ;  "  Give  me  a  little  ;  as  I  ani  here 
I  must  help  you  to  eat  it  It  gives  me  home  feelings."  He 
said  to  Ernsthausen :  "  I  am  invited  to  dine  with  the  Crown 
Prince.  As  I  have  an  important  discussion  before  me,  I  am 
strengthening  myself  for  it.  To-day  is  the  13th,  and  a  Friday. 
Sunday  is  the  ^5th,  so  the  18th  is  Wednesday.  That  is  the 
great  day,  and  the  proclamation  to  the  German  pt-oplo  about  the 
Emperor  and  the  Empire,  on  which  Bucher  is  now  at  work  will 
then  be  issued." 

Turning  to  Ernsthausen  he  said  :  "  Tlie  King  still  has  his 
difficulties  between  German  Emperor  and  Emperor  of  Germany, 
but  he  rather  inclines  to  the  latter.  I  cannot  see  much  differ- 
ence between  the  two.  It  is  a  little  like  the  question  of  the 
,  Homousians  and  the  Homoiusians,  in  the  days  of  the  Councils." 
Abeken  corrected  him  ;  '•  Homousians."  The  Chief  said  :  "  We 
call  it  '  oi'  in  our  par^.  In  Saxony  they  are  provincials.  I 
remember  that  somebody  at  our  school  from  Chemnitz  read  in 
this  way "  (and  he  quoted  a  Greek  sentence).  "  The  master 
said,  '  Stop.     Ho.  We  don't  speak  here  as  you  do  in  Saxony. ' " 

In  the  evening  new  despatches  came  in,  and  old  minutes 
were  read  over.  The  Chief  came  back  at  9.30  from  the  Crown 
Prince,  and  told  me  to  telegraph  that  at  Le  Manz  we  had  made 
18,000  French  prisoners,  and  captured  twelve  guns,  and  that 
Gambetta,  who  wanted  to  be  present  at  the  battle,  nearly  fell 
into  our  hands.  He  managed,  however,  to  escape  in  good 
time. 


310        Biamarck  in  the  Franco-German  War^ 


CHAPTER  XVL 

THE   LAST  WEEKS   BEFORE   THE   CAPITULATION   OF   PARIS. 


SATURDAY,  January  I4. — Moderately  cold ;  the  weather 
in  the  morning  somewhat  foggy,  tolerably  clear  towards  mid- 
day, but  so  bad  later  on  that  one  cannot  see  ten  yards  in  front 
of  one.  The  firing,  both  from  the  forts  and  the  town,  goes  on 
without  a  break  from  morning  till  evening.  At  night  we  re- 
pulsed a  sally  of  the  Parisians,  directed  against  the  troops  of 
the  Eleventh  Army  Corps  stationed  at  Meudon^  the  Bavarians 
at  Clamart,  and  the  Guards  at  Le  Bourget.  I  despatched 
several  telegrams,  then  wrote  an  official  letter  to  M.,  and,  as  us- 
ual, read  newspapers  for  the  Bang  and  the  Chief. 

Count  Lehndorf  dined  with  us.  The  Chief  told  us  he  had 
heard  from  Jules  Favre.  He  wished  to  go  to  the  Conference 
in  London,  and  declared  he  had  only  heard  on  the  10th  that  a 
safe-conduct  would  be  provided  for  .  him.  He  would  like  to 
take  out  with  him  an  unman-ied  daughter,  a  married  daughter, 
with  her  husband,  with  a  Spanish  name,  and  a  secretary. 
What  he  would  like  best  would  be  a  pass  "  for  the  minister 
and  suite."  He  was  not,  however,  to  have  any  pass,  but  the 
military  authorities  were  simply  to  be  instructed  to  let  hini 
through.  Bucher  is  to  write  to  him  that  his  best  way  will  be  to 
go  by  way  of  Corbeil,  so  as  not  to  have  to  leave  his  Paris  carriage, 
have  to  walk  some  way,  and  then  take  another  carriage.  He 
had  also  better  go  to  Metz  by  Lagny,  instead  of  Amiens. 
Should  he  not  wish  to  go  by  Corbeil,  would  he  say  so  ?  Other 
instructions  should  then  be  given  to  the  military.  '*  As  for  his 
wish  to  travel  with  his  family,"  added  the  Chief,  "  one  would 
almost  think  that  he  wanted  to  make  his  escape." 

In  the  course  of  further  conversation  the  Minister  observed : 
"  Versailles  is  just  the  most  unfit  place  possible  for  the  conduce 
of  business.     We  had  better  have  stayed  in  Lagny  or  Ferrieres. 


Boaywood  over  the  Bedhead.        '  311 

But  I  know  very  well  why  :  many  people  who  have  nothing  to 
do  would  have  been  bored  to  death  there.  For  the  matter  of 
that,  such  people  are  bored  here  and  would  be  so  anywhere." 

In  the  evening  I  wrote  an  article  upon  the  difficulties  of 
victualling  Paris  after  its  surrender,  which  was  to  appear  in 
the  Moniteur. 

Sunday,  January  15. — The  weather  is  moderately  clear  and 
cold.  Fewer  shots  are  heard  than  during  the  last  few  days. 
The  Chief  passed  a  sleepless  night,  and  had  Wollmann  awakened 
by  four  o'clock,  in  order  to  telegraph  to  London  about  Favre. 
Andrassy,  the  prime  minister  of  Hungary,  has  declared  that 
he  not  only  shares  the  view  of  matters  expressed  in  Count 
Beust's  despatch  on  the  new  Germany,  but  has  always  been  in 
favor  of  this  policy  and  recommended  it.  The  reservation  in 
the  preamble  of  that  document  might  have  been  omitted,  as  the 
new  organisation  of  Germany  does  notviolatethetreaty  of  Prague. 
The  letters  in  which  the  German  princes  assent  to  the  proposals 
of  the  King  of  Bavaria  regarding  the  restoration  of  the  Im- 
perial dignity,  express  nearly  r,he  same  sentiments.  Only 
Pteuss  was  inclined  to  explain  his  consent  in  a  .somewhat  dif- 
ferent way.  On  the  side  of  Brivaria  pretensions  are  put  for- 
ward which  cannot  at  all  be  admitted.  The  Chief  dines  to-day 
with  the  King. 

Bamberg,  who  comes  every  evening  after  news  for  the  Mon 
iteur,  explains  to  me  the  meaning  of  the  branch  of  box-wood 
on  the  wall  over  my  bed.  It  is  consecrated  in  the  church  on 
Palm  Sunday,  and  remains  in  its  place  all  the  year  round.  It 
serves,  probably,  as  a  safeguard  against  illnesses,  evil  spirits, 
and  witches,  and  so  plays  its  part  in  the  popular  superstitions 
of  the  French.  .  .  .  The  Chief  calls  for  me  at  nine  o'clock.  I 
am  to  make  an  article  from  the  official  reports  on  our  position 
towards  American  ships  laden  with  contraband  of  war.  The 
point  lies  in  the  thirteenth  article  of  the  treaty  of  1799.  We 
cannot  capture  these  ships,  but  can  only  detain  them  while  the 
war  lasts,  or  have  the  contraband  goods  handed  over  to  us  on 
our  giving  a  receipt.  In  either  case  we  must  pay  a  moderate 
compensation.  The  paper  was  written  forthwith  and  deposited 
in  the  letter-box  of  the  office. 

Monday,  January  16. — In  the  morning  I  read  Trochu's  lettei- 
to  Moltke,  in  which  he  complains  that  our  fire  in  the  south  of 
Paris  has  struck  hospitals  and  asylums,  although  these  are  dis- 
tinguished by  fl^ags.     He  thinks  this  cannot  be  by  chance,  and 


312        Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War. 

refers  to  the  international  treaties,  by  which  these  establish- 
ments are  inviolable.  Moltke  has  defended  himself  stoutly 
against  any  idea  of  design.  The  humanity  -with  which  we  have 
carried  on  the  war,  so  far  as  the  character  which  has  been 
given  to  it  by  the  French  since  the  4th  of  September  allows  us 
to  be  humane — protects  us  against  such  a  suspicion.  So  soon 
as  the  air  clears,  and  the  distance  between  our  batteries  and 
Paris  enables  us  to  distinguish  the  Geneva  flags  on  the  buildings 
in  question,  even  chance  injuries  will  be  avoided.  Later  on, 
we  learn  by  telegraph  of  the  pursuit  of  Chanzy  by  our  troops. 
Before  noon  a  telegram  is  despatched,  telling  of  the  capture  of 
the  camp  at  ConHe,  and  the  successful  resistance  offered  by 
General  von  Werder,  south  of  Belfort,  to  the  overwhelming 
superiority  of  four  French  corps. 

Prince  Pless  and  Maltzahn  dined  with  us.  We  learn  that 
the  proclamation  to  the  German  people  is  to  be  read  out  to- 
morrow on  the  occasion  of  the  festival,  which  will  take  place 
in  the  grand  reception-room  of  the  Palace  here.  The  King 
will  be  hailed  as  Emperor  in  presence  of  a  brilliant  assemblage. 
Deputations  with  banners,  from  the  army,  the  Generals,  the 
Chancellor  of  the  Confederation,  and  a  number  of  Princes  wUl 
be  there.  We  hear,  too,  that  the  Chancellor  has  changed  his 
mind  about  letting  Favi-e  out  of  Paris,  and  has  written  him  a 
letter,  which  is  practically  a  refusal.  The  Chancellor  says  : 
*'  Favre  seems  to  me  with  his  request  to  be  allowed  to  attend 
the  conference  in  London,  just  like  children  in  the  game  of 
'  Fox  in  the  hole.'  They  shut  the  door  to,  and  then  contrive 
to  come  out  at  a  place  where  you  cannot  do  them  any  harm 
(like  the  '  pax '  in  our  Dresden  game  of  '  Last  man  ').  He 
must  eat  the  soup  he  has  crumbled  his  bread  in.  I  have  writ- 
ten to  him  that  his  honor  reqires  it."  Possibly  this  change  of 
mind  may  have  been  caused  by  an  article  in  Gambetta's  organ, 
Le /Steele,  printed  also  in  the  Nbrd-Deutsche  Allgemeine  Zei- 
lung,  and  marked  for  him.  It  was  to  the  effect  that  the  per- 
mission to  Favre  to  go  to  London  amounted  to  a  recognition  of 
the  present  French  government  on  our  part.*  The  article  went 
to  the  King  and  to  London. 

In  the  evening  I  saw  the  correspondence  between  Favre  and 
he  Chancellor. 


*  This  supposition  was  wrong.    The  Chancellor  changed  his  mind  because 
'  Favre's  circular  on  January  12, 


Conference  on  the  Treaty  of  1856.  313 

I  insert  here  a  resume  of  this  affair,  based  on  docximents 

afterwards  made  public. 

**♦*♦♦♦ 

On  the  17th  of  November,  Favre,  as  Minister  for  Foreign  » 
Affairs,  learnt  from  a  despatch  dated  Tours,  November  11,  and 
forwarded  by  Chaudordy,  that  news  had  come  from  Vienna 
that  the  Russian  Government  considered  itself  no  longer  bound 
by  the  Treaty  of  1856.  Favre  at  once  repUed,  recommending 
strict  reserve  until  the  arrival  of  official  information,  and  pointing 
out  how,  without  neglecting  to  assert  the  claims  of  France  on  every 
opportunity,  she  must  be  invited  to  the  discussion  of  the  Russian 
declaration.  Communications  on  the  subject,  both  by  .word  of 
mouth  and  in  writing  then  passed  between  the  different  Powers 
and  the  Provisional  Government  of  Paris,  in  which  the  French 
tried  hard  to  induce  the  representatives  of  the  other  Powers  to 
admit,  that  the  French  representative  at  the  Conference  would 
be  bound  to  open  a  discussion  of  quite  other  importance  (than 
that  upon  the  Treaties  of  1856),  in  respect  to  which  they  were 
not  disposed  to  give  any  negative  reply.  The  Delegation  at 
Tours  shared  this  opinion,  though  it  thought  that  the  invitation 
of  Europe  to  the  Congress,  if  one  were  to  take  place,  must  be 
assumed,  even  though  neither  a  pledge  nor  an  armistice  had 
been  obtained  beforehand.  Gambetta  wrote  to  Favre  on  the 
31st  December  :  "You  must  be  prepared  to  leave  Paris  to  at- 
tend the  London  conference  if ,  as  is  asserted,  England  has 
succeeded  in  obtaining  for  you  a  safe-conduct."  Before  these 
lines  were  received,  Favre  had  told  Chaudordy  that  the  Govern- 
ment had  decided  that  France,  "  if  she  were  invited  in  regular 
form,"  should  be  represented  at  the  London  conference,  provided 
that  the  Parisian  deputy  could  procure  from  England,  who  had 
sent  a  verbal  invitation,  the  necessary  safe-conduct.  This  was 
undertaken  by  the  English  Cabinet,  and  Chaudordy  informed 
Favre  of  the  fact  in  a  despatch  which  reached  Paris  on  January 
8,  adding  also  that  he,  Favre,  had  been  appointed  by  the  Gov- 
ernment to  represent  France  at  the  conference.  This  communi- 
cation was  confirmed  in  a  despatch  written  to  Favre  by  Lord 
Granville  under  date  December  29,  which  reached  Paris  on 
January  10.     It  ran  as  follows  : 

"  M.  de  Chaudordy  has  informed  Lord  Lyons  that  your  Ex- 
cellency proposes  to  represent  France  at  the  conference,  and  he 
has  begged  me  to  procure  a  safe-conduct  for  your  Excellency 
through  the  Prussian  lines.     I  at  once  requested  Count  Bern 
21 


314        Bisinmrch  in  the  Franco-German  War, 

storff  to  ask  for  this  safe-conduct  and  to  have  it  conveyed  to  your- 
self by  the  hands  of  a  German  officer  sent  under  a  flag  of  truce. 
Herr  von  Bernstorff  yesterday  informed  me  that  a  safe-conduct 
should  be  at  the  disposal  of  your  Excellency,  whenever  it  was 
applied  for  by  an  oflicer  from  Paris  at  the  German  headquarters. 
He  added  that  it  could  not  be  conveyed  by  the  hands  of  a 
German  officer  until  satisfaction  had  been  given  to  the  officer 
who  had  been  shot  at  when  bearing  a  flag  of  truce.  M.  Tissot 
gives  me  to  understand  that  it  would  take  a  long  time  for  this 
communication  to  reach  you  through  the  Delegation  in  Bor- 
deaux. I  have  therefore  suggested  to  Count  BemstorC  another 
means  erf  conveying  it  to  you.  I  hope  your  Excellency  will 
allow  me  to  take  this  opportunity  of  expressing  the  satisfaction 
I  feel  in  dealing  with  you  personally,"  &c.,  &c. 

Favre  saw  in  this  letter  a  recognition  of  the  existing  French 
Government  and  an  invitation  which  he  might  turn  to  account 
in  opening  the  discussion  upon  the  situation  of  France  before 
the  Powers  in  London.  In  the  circxilar  issued  to  the  French 
Ambassadors  on  January  1 2,  he  said  : 

"  Directly  invited  by  this  despatch,  the  Government  could 
not  refuse  the  invitation  received  in  her  name  without  neglect- 
ing the  rights  of  France.  It  may  no  doubt  be  maintained  on 
the  other  hand  that  the  time  for  such  a  discussion  of  the 
neutralization  of  the  Black  Sea  is  not  well  chosen.  But  the 
very  fact  that  this  formal  step  is  taken  by  the  European  Powers 
towards  the  French  Republic  at  the  critical  moment  when  the 
country  is  fighting  single-handed  for  her  honor  and  her  exist- 
ence, lends  to  it  an  exceptional  gravity.  It  is  a  beginning,  too 
long  delayed,  of  the  practice  of  justice,  a  pledge  which  cannot 
be  recalled.  It  consecrates  our  change  oj  government  vAth  the 
authority  of  international  rights  /  and  leaves  on  the  stage 
where  the  fate  of  the  world  is  beipg  decided,  the  nation  freed 
in  spite  of  its  afllictions,  face  to  face  with  the  power  which 
has  brought  it  to  ruin,  and  with  the  pretenders  who  would 
fain  hold  sway  over  it.  Who,  moreover,  does  not  feel  that 
France,  admitted  among  the  representatives  of  Europe,  has  an 
indisputable  right  to  raise  her  voice  in  their  presence  1  Who 
will  be  able  to  hinder  her,  when,  taking  her  stand  upon  the 
everlasting  ordinances  of  justice,  she  shall  vindicate  the  prin- 
ciples which  assure  her  independence  and  dignity  1  Not  one  of 
these  will  she  abandon.  Our  programme  remains  unchanged, 
and  Europe,  in  inviting  him  who  has  laid  it  down,  knows  very 


Diffi,cultie8  about  the  safe-conduct.  315 

well  that  he  has  both  the  "will  and  obligation  to  maintain  it.  We 
must  hesitate  no  longer,  and  the  Government  would  have  com- 
mitted a  grave  mistake  if  it  had  rejected  the  proffered  opening. 

"While  recognising  this,  however,  the  Government  thought, 
as  I  do,  that  the  Foreign  Minister  could  not,  unless  higher  in- 
terests were  at  stake,  leave  Paris  during  the  bombardment 
which  the  enemy  is  directing  against  the  city,"  (Here  follows 
along  sentimental  lamentation  over  the  damage  which  "the 
fury  of  the  invaders"  has,  int-entionally,  "in  order  to  spread 
terror,"  inflicted  by  their  shells  upon  churches,  hospitals,  or- 
phanages, and  so  on.)  Then  he  proceeds  :  "  Our  brave  i^aris- 
ians  feel  their  courage  rise  with  the  danger.  Firm,  animated, 
and  determined,  they  are  neither  exasperated  nor  bowed 
doAvn  by  their  sufferings.  They  will  fight  and  conquer  more 
than  ever,  and  we  shall  do  so  with  them.  /  cannot  think  of  de- 
serting them  at  this  crisis.  Probably  the  protests  we  have  ad- 
dressed to  Europe  as  well  as  to  members  of  the  diplomatic 
corps  still  remaining  in  Paris,  will  soon  attain  their  object. 
England  will  understand  that  till  that  hov/r  my  place  is  in  the 
midst  of  m,y  fellow-citizens." 

The  same  expression  had  been  used  by  Favre  in  the  following 
answer  of  two  days  before  to  Lord  Granville's  letter,  but  only 
in  the  first  part,  where  he  said :  "  /  cannot  consider  myself 
justified  in  leaving  my  ^ellow-citizens  at  a  moment  when  they 
are  the  victims  of  this  violence  "  ("  against  an  unarmed  popula- 
tion "  he  had  written  in  the  lines  immediately  before,  from  a 
strong  fortress  with  nearly  200,000  soldiers  and  militia !). 
Then,  however,  he  proceeded  :  "  Moreover,  communication  be- 
tween London  and  Paris  is,  thanks  to  the  commander  of  the 
besieging  army  (how  naive  /)  so  tedious  and  uncertain,  that  I 
cannot,  with  all  my  goodwill,  answer  your  summons  according 
to  the  letter  of  your  despatch.  You  have  informed  me  that  the 
Conference  ^vill  meet  on  February  3,  and  probably  last  for  a 
week.  This  information  having  reached  me  on  the  evening  of 
the  10th  of  January,  I  could  not  have  availed  myself  of  your 
invitation  in  proper  time.  Besides,  Herr  vonJBismarck  in  for- 
warding it  to  me  did  not  accompany  it  with  a  safe-conduct, 
which  is  absolutely  indispensable.  He  requires  that  a  French 
officer  should  go  to  his  headquarters  to  fetch  it,  and  he  bases  this 
request  on  a  reclamation  addressed  to  the  Governor  of  Paris,  in 
consequence  of  an  incident  which  a  messenger  with  a  flag  of 
truce  had  to  complain  of  on  the  23rd  of  December.     Herr  von 


816        Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War. 

Bismarck  adds,  that  the  Prussian  commander-in-chief  has  for- 
bidden any  communication  by  flag  of  truce  until  satisfaction 
for  this  has  been  obtained.  I  do  not  inquire  whether  such  a 
decision,  directly  contrary  to  the  rules  of  war,  does  not  amount 
to  an  absolute  denial  of  those  higher  claims  of  the  amenities  of 
warfare  which  necessity  and  humanity  have  always  upheld.  I 
content  myself  -with  remarking  to  your  Excellency,  that  the 
Governor  of  Paris  lost  no  time  in  instituting  an  inquiry  into 
the  incident  indicated  by  Count  von  Bismarck  ;  and  that  in  an- 
nouncing the  fact  to  him,  he  brought  very  numerous  cases  to 
his  knowledge,  laid  to  the  charge  of  the  Prussian  sentries,  of 
which  he  had  himself  never  taken  advantage  to  interrupt  the 
exchange  of  ordinary  communications.  Count  von  Bismarck 
Beems  to  have  admitted,  partially  at  least,  the  justice  of  these 
observations,  for  he  to-day  asked  the  United  States  ambassador 
to  inform  me  that,  pending  the  reciprocal  inquiries,  he  is  re- 
establishing communications  by  parley.  There  can,  therefore, 
be  no  necessity  for  a  French  officer  going  to  the  Prussian  head- 
quarters ;  and  I  will  put  myself  into  communication  with  the 
tjnited  States  ambassador,  in  order  to  receive  the  passport 
which  you  have  taken  the  trouble  to  procure  for  me.  As  soon 
as  I  have  this  in  my  hands,  and  the  condition  of  Paris  permits 
me,  I  will  take  the  road  to  London,  sure  beforehand  that  I  will 
make  no  vain  appeal  in  the  name  of  my  Government  to  the 
principles  of  justice  and  morality  which  Europe  is  so  vitally 
interested  in  seeing  respected." 

So  far,  M.  Favre.  The  condition  of  Paris  had  not  changed, 
the  protests  addressed  to  Europe  had  not  yet  put  an  end  to  the 
crisis.  Indeed  it  was  not  yet  possible  that  they  should, 
when  Favre,  on  the  13  th  of  January,  three  days  after  his  letter 
to  Granville,  and  the  day  after  the  issue  of  his  circular  to  the 
French  representatives  in  foreign  parts,  sent  the  following 
despatch  to  the  German  Chancellor  : — 

"  M,  le  Comte !  Lord  Granville  has  informed  me,  in  a 
despatch  dated  December  29  of  last  year,  which  I  received  in 
the  evening  of  flfte  10th  of  January,  that  your  Excellency,  by 
request  of  the  English  .Cabinet,  holds  at  my  disposal  a  safe- 
conduct,  which  is  necessary  to  enable  the  plenipotentiaries  of 
France  at  the  London  Congress  to  pass  the  Prussian  lines.  As 
I  have  been  appointed  in  this  capacity  I  do  myself  the  honor 
to  request  your  Excellency  to  send  this  passport,  made  out  iu 
tny  name,  with  tlie  least  x^ossible  delay." 


Favre  and  Bismarck.  317 

My  only  object  in  quoting  all  this  is  to  show  the  difference 
between  the  character  and  ability  of  Favre,  and  Bismarck  as 
he  really  is.  Compare  the  Avritings  of  the  one,  as  they  have 
been  given  in  detail  above,  with  the  following  utterance  of  the 
other.  There  we  have  indecision,  ambiguity,  conceits  of  pose 
and  phrase,  and,  lastly,  contradiction  of  what  had  been  said 
emphatically  a  few  lines  before,  and  expressed  with  equal 
emphasis  in  other  documents.  Here,  on  the  contrary,  speaks 
a  man  who  is  sure,  simple,  natural,  and  always  to  the  point. 
The  Chancellor  answered  Favre  on  January  16  (I  leave  out  the 
opening  words)  as  follows  : 

"  Your  Excellency  ass\imes  that  on  the  application  of  the 
Royal  government  of  Great  Britain  a  pass  to  enable  you  to 
attend  the  London  Conference  lies  ready  for  you  with  me. 
This  assumption,  however,  is  not  correct.  I  could  not  have 
entered  upon  an  official  negotiation  resting  on  the  supposition 
that  the  National  Defence  Committee,  is,  by  the  law  of  nations, 
in  a  position  to  act  in  the  name  of  France,  so  long  as  it  has 
not  been,  in  the  least  degree,  recognized  by  the  French  nation 
itself. 

"  I  presume  that  the  commander  of  our  outposts  would  have 
granted  your  Excellency  the  warrant  to  pass  the  German  lines 
had  your  Excellency  applied  for  it  to  the  general  of  the  besieg- 
ing army.  The  latter  would  have  had  no  occasion  to  consider 
your  Excellency's  political  station  and  the  piirpose  of  yoUr 
journey,  while  the  fact  that  the  warrant  to  pass  our  lines  being 
granted  by  the  military  authorities,  to  whom  it  would  not  have 
seemed,  from  their  point  of  view,  a  matter  for  much  hesita- 
tion, would  have  left  the  hands  of  his  Majesty's  ambassador  in 
London  free  in  regard  the  question  whether  your  Excellency's 
declarations  could,  by  the  law  of  nations,  be  regarded  as  the 
declarations  of  France,  so  that  he  could  have  taken  up  his 
ground,  and  on  his  part  adopted  some  form  by  which  prejudice 
might  have  been  avoided.  In  addressing  to  me,  by  way  of 
an  official  announcement  of  the  object  of  your  journey, 
an  official  request  for  a  passport,  in  view  of  the  representa- 
tion of  France  at  the  Conference,  your  Excellency  has  debarred 
us  from  this  course.  Political  considerations,  in  support  of 
which  I  refer  to  the  declarations  published  by  your  Excel- 
lency* forbid  me  to  accede  to  your  request  by  sending  such  a 
document. 

"  While  making  this  communication  I  can  only  leave  you  to 


318        Bismarck  in  the  Franco-Ger'man  War. 

consider  for.  yourself  and  your  government,  -whetlier  any  other 
way  can  be  suggested  for  removing  the  objections  indicated,  by 
which  any  prejudice  arising  out  of  your  presence  in  London 
can  be  avoided. 

"  But  even  if  such  a  way  should  be  found,  I  venture  to  ask 
whether  it  is  wise  for  your  Excellency  to  leave  Paris  and  your 
post  as  member  of  the  Government  there,  to  take  part  in  per- 
son in  a  Conference  about  the  Black  Sea,  at  a  moment  when 
interests  are  at  stake  in  Paris  which  are  of  far  greater  import- 
ance, both  to  France  and  Germany,  than  the  11th  article  of  the 
Treaty  of  1856.  Your  Excellency  would  also  be  leaving  be- 
hind in  Paris  the  diplomatic  agents  and  attaches  of  the  neutral 
states,  who  have  remained,  or  rather  been  detained  there,  long 
after  they  received  permission  to  pass  through  the  German 
lines,  and  have  therefore  all  the  greater  claims  upon  your  pro- 
tection and  forethought  as  Minister  for  Foreign  AflFairs  in  the 
actual  Government. 

**  I  can  therefore  scarcely  suppose  that  your  Excellency,  in  the 
critical  situation  which  you  have  so  essential  a  ^art  in  conducting 
to  its  issue,  will  willingly  deprive  yourself  of  the  opportunity  of 
assisting  in  the  solution,  for  which  the  responsibility  rests  on 
you." 

It  is  now  the  turn  of  the  journal  to  speak  again. 

Tuesday,  Janua/ry  17. — The  weather  is  warm,  with  much 
wind.  At  dinner  we  had  as  guests  the  Saxon  Count  Nostitz- 
Wallwitz,  who  is  to  be  appointed  to  the  administration  here, 
and  a  Herr  Winter,  or  von  Winter,  who  has  been  made  Pre- 
fect of  Chartres.  On  some  one  turning  the  conversation  upon 
the  future  operations  of  the  war,  the  Chief  observed  :  "I  think, 
if  by  God's  help  we  take  Paris,  we  will  not  occupy  it  with 
our  troops.  The  National  Guard  might  serve  there  under  a 
French  commandant.  We  should  occupy  only  the  forts  and 
the  outskirts.  Every  one  would  be  let  in,  but  no  one  let  out. 
It  would  be  a  great  prison  until  it  came  to  be  a  small  one  or 
the  conclusion  of  peace."  He  then  spoke  with  Nostitz  about 
the  General  Councils,  and  said  that  every  attempt  should  be 
made  to  procure  the  goodwill  of  their  members.  Here  would 
be  a  good  field  for  further  political  operations.  "  As  for  the 
military  side  of  the  question,"  he  went  on  to  say,  "  I  am  for 
more  concentration,  not  covering  a  certain  quantity  of  ground, 
but  so  holding  it  in  hand  that  the  authorities  can  conduct  the 


Shoot,  Hang  and  Burn.  319 

administration,  and  especially  collect  the  taxes  in  a  regular  way. 
The  military  has  a  centrifugal  plan  of  operations,  I  a  centri- 
petal." ...  "  If  we  cannot  provide  every  place  within  our  circle 
with  gan-isons,  we  can  send  a  flying  column  from  time  to  time 
to  such  places  as  prove  troublesome,  and  shoot,  hang  and  bum. 
If  that  is  done  twice  they  will  soon  listen  to  reason."  Winter 
thought  that  the  mere  appearance  of  the  party  to  do  execution 
in  such  places  would  produce  the  desired  efifect.  "  I  don't 
know,"  said  the  Chief ;  "  a  moderate  amount  of  hanging  does 
much  better  ;  and  if  a  few  shells  are  thrown  in,  and  a  few  houses 
bur  at.  That  reminds  me  of  the  Bavarians,  who  asked  the  Prus- 
sian artillery  officer,  *  What  think  yon,  comrade  ;  are  we  to  bum 
this  village  to  the  ground,  or  only  wreck  it  in  moderation  ?'  I 
don't  know  what  the  answer  was." 

He  told  us  then  that  he  had  many  weU-wishers  in  Bremen. 
••  They  have  lately  made  for  me  there  a  number  of  excellent 
cigars,  very  strong,  but  praised  by  all  connoisseurs.  In  the 
press  of  business  I  have  forgotten  the  name  of  the  company" — 
(Bucher  named,  if  I  remember  right,  "  Jacobi  Brothers") — "  and 
now  they  send  me  again  a  fine  polar  bear's  skin.  It  is  too  good 
for  the  campaign ;  I  shall  send  it  home." 

This  led  him  to  observe  that,  at  St.  Petersburg  once,  he  wanted 
to  go  on  a  bear's  hunt,  down  the  Dwina  to  Archangel,  but  his 
wife  would  not  let  him  ;  besides  he  would  have  been  obHged  to 
take  at  least  six  weeks'  leave.  In  the  woods  up  there,  is  an 
incredible  quantity  of  game,  especially  blackcock  and  woodcock, 
which  are  killed  in  thousands  by  the  Finns  and  Samoyeds,  who 
shoot  them  with  small  rifles  without  ramrods,  and  bad  powder. 
"A  woodcock  there,"  added  he,  "lets  itself,  I  will  not  say  be 
caught  with  the  hand,  but  killed  with  a  stick.  In  .St.  Peters- 
burg they  come  to  the  market  in  heaps.  On  the  whole,  a  sports- 
man is  pretty  well  ofi'in  Russia,  and  the  cold  is  not  so  bad,  for 
every  one  is  used  to  struggling  with  it.  All  the  houses  are 
v.roperly  warmed,  even  the  steps  and  the  porch  as  well  as  the 
riding  paths,  and  no  one  thinks  of  visiting  with  a  tall  hat  in 
winter,  but  goes  instead  in  furs  with  a  fur  cap." 

He  came  to  speak  again,  I  do  not  remember  how,  of  his 
yesterday's  letter  to  Favre,  and  said,  "  I  have^ven  him  clearly 
to  understand  that  it  will  not  do,  and  that  Icould  not  believe 
that  the  man  who  helped  to  bring  about  the  business  of  the  4th 
of  September,  would  not  wish  to  await  its  issue.  I  wrote  in 
French,  partly  because  I   look  upon  it  not  as  official,  but  as 


320        Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War, 

private  correspondence,  but  also  that  it  may  be  read,  not  only 
by  him,  but  by  everybody  in  the  French  army  before  it  gets  to 
him."  Nostitz  asked  how  diplomatic  correspondence  was  gen- 
erally conducted.  "  In  German,"  said  the  Chief  ;  "  formerly 
it  was  in  French,  but  I  have  changed  this.  Only  with  those 
cabinets,  however,  whose  language  we  understand — England, 
Italy,  and  Spain  ;  these  can  be  read  at  a  pinch  ; — not  with 
Russia,  for  I  am  about  the  only  man  in  the  Foreign  OflBce  who 
understands  Russian.  Nor  again,  with  Holland,  Denmark,  or 
Sweden,  for  their  languages  are  not  learnt  as  a  rule.  They 
write  in  French,  and  are  answered  in  the  same  way."  "  The 
King  has,  moreover,  given  orders  that  the  soldiers  are  only  to 
converse  with  the  French  in  German.  Let  them  learn  it.  We 
have  had  to  learn  their  language."  "  With  Thiers  (he  meant 
Favre),  at  Ferrieres,  I  conversed  in  French.  But  I  told  him 
that  it  was  only  because  I  was  not  dealing  with  him  officially. 
He  laughed  at  that.  I  said  to  him,  however,  '  You  will  see 
when  we  are  discussing  terms  of  peace  that  we  shall  speak  Ger- 
man.'" 

Wednesday,  January  18. — The  sky  is  cloudy  ;  the  air  clear. 
An  extens^e  view  ;  the  temperature  warm,  with  a  little  ^v'ind. 
In  the  morning  I  read  letters  and  newspapers.  WoUmann 
told  me  an  order  had  come  in  promoting  our  Chief  to  the  rank 
of  Lieutenant-General.  Hatzfeld  and  Bohlen  have  received 
the  cross  to-day.  The  others  are  expecting  it,  and  the  longing 
for  it  seems  with  some  of  them  to  be  very  great.  What  store  •. 
even  the  lower  officials  set  by  it,  and  how  useful  the  custom  of 
decorations  consequently  is  to  the  state,  was  shown  by  what  our 
excellent  T.  said  to  me  this  morning,  "  God  knows,  doctor,  I 
would  gladly  even  give  up  all  my  extra  pay,  if  you  will  believe 
me,  if  I  could  get  the  Iron  Cross."  I  believed  him,  although 
it  was  hardly  conceivable  ;  for  the  extra  pay  to  which  he 
referred  comes  to  one  and  a  half  times  as  much  as  his  ordinary 
income. 

Between  twelve  and  half-past  one  there  was  the  banquet  of 
the  knights  in  the  great  hall  of  the  castle,  and  the  proclamation 
in  military  splendour  of  the  German  Empire  and  Emperor.  It 
must  have  been  g  very  grand  and  imposing  sight.  Meanwhile 
I  took  a  long  walk  with  Wollmann.  As  we  were  on  our  way 
back,  going  from  the  railings  of  the  Avenue  de  Saint-Cloud,  up 
the  alley,  and  through  the  Rue  de  Saint-Pierre,  we  heard  the 
thunder-roll  of  loud  hurrahs   from  the  Place  d'Armes  ;  these 


TIi^  Proclamation  r'  the  Ernyire.  821 

were  for  the  King,  w  no  "was  returning  home  from  the  ceremony. 
I  should  have  said  for  the  Emperor.  At  dinner  the  Chief  was 
absent,  as  he  was  dining  with  the  Emperor.  Twice  in  the  eve- 
ning I  was  summoned  to  receive  instructions  from  him  ;  he 
spoke  with  an  unusually  weak  voice,  and  seemed  tired  and 
exhausted. 

The  Minister  has  received  a  letter  written  by  Kem,  the 
Swiss  ambassador,  on  behalf  of  a  number  of  diplomatists 
remaining  in  Paris,  requesting  him  to  see  that  measures  are 
taken  to  enable  the  proteges  of  the  writers  to  escape,  before 
the  bombardment,  to  a  distance  from  the  town.  This  is  to  dis- 
pute our  right  to  bombard  Paris,  and  to  infer  that  we  purposely 
fire  upon  buildings  which  ought  to  be  spared.  In  reply,  we 
can  say  that  we  have  repeatedly  (as  early  as  towards  the  end  of 
September,  and  once  more  in  October)  drawn  the  attention  of 
those  of  the  inhabitants  of  Paris  who  are  citizens  of  neutral 
coxintries,  through  their  embassies,  to  the  damage  which  the 
town  must  be  exposed  to  from  a  prolonged  resistance.  For 
months,  we  allowed  all  neutrals  who  cotdd  show  themselves  to 
be  such,  and  who  wished  to  leave,  to  pass  our  lines  without  dif- 
ficulty. On  military  grounds  we  can  now  grant  this  privilege 
only  to  members  of  the  diplomatic  body.  If  a  number  of 
neutrals  have  still  not  availed  themselves  of  this  permission  to 
take  themselves  and  their  chattels  to  a  place  of  safety,  it  is  not 
our  fault ;  they  must  either  not  kave  wished  to  go,  or  been 
hindered  by  the  authorities  of  Paris. 

Thursday,  January  19. — To-day's  firing,  Keudell  tells  us 
at  breakfast,  is  due  to  a  fresh  and  important  sortie  which 
the  Parisians,  with  twenty-four  battalions  and  numerous 
guns,  have  made  against  our  positions  between  La  CeUe 
and  St  Cloud.  Towards  two  o'clock,  when  the  whirr  and 
rattle  of  the  mitrailleuses  are  plainly  heard,  and  the 
French  artillery  is  at  the  most  two  miles  in  a  direct  line 
from  Versailles,  the  Chief  mounts  to  ride  to  the  aqueduct  of 
Marly,  whither  the  King  and  Crown  Prince  have  also  gone.  I 
set  off  thither  likewise,  with  Wollmann. 

On  our  way  we  meet,  in  Roquencourt,  a  musketeer  coming 
back  from  the  fight,  who,  on  our  asking  how  things  are  going, 
gives  us  to  understand  we  are  in  a  bad  way,  the  enemy 
being  already  in  the  wood  on  the  hills  behind  La  Celle.  We 
cannot  believe  it,  because  in  that  case  there  would  have  been 
more  signs  of  life  here^   and  we  should  have  heard  the  firing 


322        Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War. 

more  distinctly.  Some  way  beyond  we  meet  tlie  Crown  Prince 
returning  to  Versailles.  There  cannot  then  be  any  further 
danger.  When  we  come  to  the  heights  in  front  of  Marly  we 
are  not  allowed  to  go  further  along  the  high  road,  which  strikes 
north  here,  as  straight  as  a  line.  We  wait  a  while  in  a  cutting 
wind  and  under  a  cloud,  from  which  falls  a  dense  shower  of 
snowflakes,  among  the  long-bearded  sons  of  Anak  of  the  militia 
c;uard  who  are  posted  here.  The  King  and  the  Chancellor  are, 
1  suppose,  on  the  aqueduct.  When  the  cloud  lifts  we  see  Mont 
Yalerien  deliver  three  shots  in  succession,  and  the  redoubts  be- 
neath its  walls  fire  eight  times.  Now  and  then  too  a  flash  comes 
from  our  batteries  in  the  west  beyond  the  Seine,  and  a  house 
seems  to  be  burning  in  one  of  the  riverside  villages.  When  the 
fire  ceases  we  return  home. 

In  Versailles,  however,  the  situation  must  have  caused  un- 
easiness J  for,  as  we  pass  through  the  town,  we  find  that  the 
Bavarians  have  entered  it.  Formerly  one  only  caught  sight  of 
them  here  by  ones  and  twos.  They  are  posted,  we  are  told,  in 
dense  masses  in  the  Place  d'Armes  and  the  Avenue  de  Paris. 
The  French,  however,  are  encamped,  they  say,  about  60,000 
strong,  under  Mont  Valerien,  and  in  the  fields  east  of  it.  They 
are  supposed  to  have  taken  the  Montretout  redoubt,  and  to  hold 
in  their  hands  also  the  village  of  Garches,  not  much  more  than 
a  couple  of  miles  from  here,  and  the  western  portion  of  Saint- 
Cloud.  It  was  feared  that  to-morrow  they  might  press  on 
further  and  force  us  to  evacuate  Versailles.  This  cannot  be 
true,  or  at  least  it  is  exaggerated. 

The  conversation  at  dirnier  seems  to  confirm  this  impression. 
The  danger  was  not  spoken  of  as  imminent.  We  had  as  our 
guest  Privy  Councillor  von  Loper,  who  is  to  be  Under-Secretary 
of  State  in  the  Household.  At  first  the  purport  of  the  talk  was 
that  the  danger  which  had  threatened  our  communications  with 
Germany  on  the  South-East  had  passed  away,  as  General  Bour- 
baki,  who  had  pressed  hard  upon  Werder  for  three  whole  days 
without  being  able  to  beat  him  back,  had,  probably  on  the  news 
of  Manteuffel's  advance,  given  up  the  attempt  to  relieve  Belfort, 
and  was  in  full  retreat.  The  Chief  then  alluded  to  a  statement 
that  the  taxes  could  not  be  got  in  from  different  communities 
in  the  parts  of  France  which  we  occupy,  and  said  it  was  diffi- 
cult, nay  impossible,  to  plant  garrisons  everywhere,  to  compel 
the  people  to  pay  them.  Then  he  went  on  to  say,  "That,  how- 
ever, is  not  at  all  necessary.      The  thing  can  be  managed  by 


Grand-Ducal  Court  at  Darmstadt.  32S 

flying  columns  of  infantry,  with  some  horse  artillery  and  a 
couple  of  guns.  They  need  not  even  enter  a  place,  but  simply 
send  in  a  message,  '  If  you  do  not  produce  the  outstanding  taxes 
— in  two  hours  shells  will  be  thrown  in.'  Then  they  see  you 
are  in  earnest,  and  they  pay.  In  some  instances  a  place  will 
really  be  bombarded,  so  as  to  encourage  the  others.  They  must  • 
learn  what  war  is." 

Later  on  the  conversation  turned  upon  the  indemnity  that 
might  be  expected  when  peace  was  concluded,  and  this  led  the 
Chief  to  speak  of  that  paid  in  1866.  He  said,  "We  ought  not 
to  have  made  them  pay  in  money.  I  at  least  resisted  it  for  a 
long  time,  but  at  last  I  gave  way  to  the  temptation."  "  We 
ought  to  have  been  paid  in  land,  as  in  1815,  and  it  would  have 
been  a  good  opportunity." 

Iridaj/,  Jamiary  20. — In  the  course  of  the  morning  we  hear 
that  the  Parisians  have  abandoned  their  positions  of  last  even- 
ing, and  marched  back  into  the  town  with  drums  beating.  Our 
losses  in  the  fight  are  said  to  be  trifling,  while  those  of  the 
enemy  are  very  severe.  From  the  West  comes  the  news  that 
Tours  has  been  occupied  by  our  troops,  without  resistance  ;  from 
the  North,  that  Goeben  has  beaten  the  French  at  Saint-Quentin, 
in  a  battle  lasting  seven  hours,  and  taken  4000  unwounded 
prisoners.  At  twelve  o'clock  I  am  sent  for  by  the  Chief.  He 
wishes  his  answer  to  Kern's  memorial,  and  the  letter  in  which 
he  refused  Favre  his  passport,  to  appear  in  the  Moniteur. 

At  dinner  Bohlen  was  again  present,  as  well  as  Lauer  and 
von  Knobelsdorft".  The  Chief  was  good-humored  and  talkative. 
Among  other  things  he  told  us  that,  when  he  was  in  Frankfort, 
he  had  constantly  had  invitations  to  the  Grand-Ducal  Court  at 
Darmstadt,  and  accepted  them  There  was  an  excellent  hunt 
there.  "However,"  he  went  on,  "I  have  reason  to  suppose 
that  I  was  not  a  favorite  with  the  Grand-Duchess  Mathilda. 
She  said  once  to  somebody,  'He  is  always  there  and  looks  as  if 
he  were  as  big  a  man  as  the  Grand  Duke.'  ' 

As  we  sat  over  our  cigars,  the  Crown  Prince's  Adjutant 
(Major  von  Hanke,  or  Kameke),  came  in  suddenly,  in  a  water- 
proof cloak,  to  tell  us  that  Count (the  name  was  unin- 
telligible) had  come  out,  ostensibly  in  the  name  and  by  order  of 
■R-ochu,  to  request  a  two  days'  truce  for  carrying  away  the 
wounded  in  yesterday's  sally,  and  burying  those  who  had  fallen 
there.  The  Chief  replied,  that  the  French  must  not  have  this 
conceded  to  them,  as  it  would  only  take  a  few  hours  to  carry  off 


324        Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German   War. 

the  wounded  and  bury  the  dead  ;  besides  the  dead  would  rest 
just  as  well  above  as  beneath  the  earth.  Soon  after  the  Major 
reappeared'^nd  said  the  King  was  coming ;  and,  true  enough, 
scarcely  a  quarter  of  an  hour  afterwards  His  Majesty  walked  in, 
and  the  Crown  Prince  along  with  him.  They  went  with  the 
Chancellor  into  the  drawing-room,  where  a  refusal  of  Trochu's 
request  was  agreed  upon. 

About  nine  o'clock  Bucher  sent  me  a  few  lines,  in  pencil,  to 
say  that,  by  the  Chief's  orders,  the  letter  to  Kern  was  to  be 
printed  in  to-morrow's  Moniteur,  while  that  to  Favre  was  to 
stand  over  till  further  notice.  I  at  once  sent  instructions  to 
that  effect  to  Bamberg,  who  must  by  this  time  have  received 
the  letters  through  the  office. 

Saturday,  January  21. — At  half -past  nine  the  Moniteur 
comes  in,  and — contains  the  Chief's  letter  to  Favre !  Unfortu- 
nate ;  but  my  letter  to  Bamberg  only  reached  him  when  the 
number  was  printed.  About  ten  I  was  summoned  to  the  Chief, 
who  however  said  nothing  of  the  mishap,  though  the  paper  was 
lying  before  him.  He  was  still  in  bed,  and  wished  Count 
Chambord's  protest  against  the  bombardment  of  Paris  cut  out 
for  the  King.  I  then  wrote  an  article  for  the  German  papers, 
and  an  occasional  note  for  the  paper  here. 

At  dinner  in  the  evening,  Voigts-Rhetz,  Prince  Putbus,  and 
the  Bavarian  Count  Berghem  were  the  Chancellor's  guests. 
The  Bavarian  had  brought  the  pleasant  news  that  the  Conven- 
tions of  Versailles  had  passed  the  Second  Chamber  in  Munich 
by  two  votes  to  spare  over  the  required  majority  of  two-thirds. 
The  German  Empire,  then,  is  formally  established.  The  Chief 
accordingly  proposed  to  the  company  to  drink  the  health  of  the 
King  of  Bavaria,  "  who  had  really  brought  the  matter  to  a  satis- 
factory conclusion."  "  I  always  thought,"  he  added,  "  that  we 
should  carry  it  through,  if  only  by  one  vote ;  I  had  not  hoped 
for  two.  The  last  good  news  from  the  seat  of  war  probably 
contributed  to  it." 

It  was  then  mentioned  that  in  the  great  sortie  the  day  before 
yesterday,  the  French  had  deployed  against  us  more  men  than 
had  been  hitherto  believed,  probably  over  80,000,  and  that  the 
Montretout  redoubt  had  actually  been  in  their  hands  for  some 
hours,  as  well  as  part  of  Garches  and  Saint-Cloud.  They  had, 
however,  suffered  frightful  losses  in  storming  them ;  as  many 
as  1,200  dead  and  4,000  wounded  were  talked  of.  The  Chief 
observed,  "  The  capitulation  must  soon  come  now ;  next  week, 


A  High-Class  Spy.  325 

I  should  imagine.  After  the  capitulation  they  are  to  be  sup- 
'  plied  by  us  with  provisions — ^that  is  understood — but,  until  they 
have  given  up  700,000  stand  of  arms  and  4,000  cannon,  not  a 
morsel  of  bread  shall  they  touch,  and  no  one  will  be  let  out. 
We  occupy  the  forts  and  the  suburbs,  and  put  them  to  a  little 
cost  until  they  can  bring  themselves  to  agree  to  a  peace  that 
will  suit  us.  There  are  still  many  intelligent  and  respectable 
people  in  Paris  for  us  to  deal  with." 

Afterwards  we  came  to  speak  of  a  Madame  Cordier,  who 
stayed  here  some  time  ago,  and  had  spent  several  hours  each 
day  walking  up  and  down  on  the  bridge  of  Sevres,  apparently 
with  the  intention  of  getting  into  Paris  or  conveying  something 
in.  She  seems  to  be  a  pretty,  somewhat  elderly  widow ;  and  if 
I  understood  right,  is  a  daughter  of  Lafitte,  and  a  sister  of  the 
wife  of  the  Marquis  de  Gallifet,  commander  of  cavalry,  who 
was  conspicuous  among  the  elegant  women  of  Napoleon's  court. 
She  seems  to  have  been  looked  upon  among  us  as  a  high-class 
spy,  and  the  wonder  was  that  she  was  tolerated  here  ;  but  pro- 
bably she  had  many  friends  and  admirers  among  the  higher 
officers. 

The  Chief  remarked,  "  I  remember  when  she  came  to  Frank- 
fort fifteen  or  sixteen  years  ago.  There  she  undoubtedly  expected 
to  play  tho  part  of  a  beauty  and  a  Paiisian.  But  it  did  not 
succeed.  She  had  common  manners  and  but  little  tact,  and  was 
not  so  well  educated  as  the  bankers'  wives  in  Frankfort,  who 
soon  made  out  the  fact.  I  know  she  went  out  one  day  in  dirty 
wet  weather,  with  a  rose-colored  satin  cloak  on,  all  covered  with 
lace.  '  If  she  got  sovereigns  sewn  all  over  her  dress,'  said  the 
ladies  of  Frankfort,  *  we  should  see  better  what  she  wanted  to 
show  oflF.' 

The  conversation  then  drifted  into  a  learned  discussion  upon 
the  difference  between  the  titles  "  German  Emperor "  and 
"  Emperor  of  Germany ;"  the  possibility  of  an  "  Emperor  of 
the  Germans  "  being  also  mentioned.  After  the  discussion  had 
lasted  for  some  time,  the  Chief,  who  had  hitherto  remained 
silent,  asked,  '*  Does  any  gentleman  know:  the  Latin  for  sausage  1" 
"  Farcimentum,"  replied  Abeken.  "  Farcimen,"  said  I.  "  Farci- 
mentum  or  farcimen,  whichever  you  please,"  said  the  Chief, 
smiling,  "  nescio  quid  mihi  magis  farcimentum  esset."  (I  don't 
know  which  of  the  two  I  should  consider  the  more  made-up 
name.) 

Monday,  January  23. — Weather  dull  and  mild.     I  telegraph 


326        BisTnarch  in  the  Franco-German  War. 

that  the  bombardment  from  our  northern  batteries  is  doing 
good  work  ;  the  fort  at  Saint-Denis  is  silenced,  while  conflagra- 
tions are  noticed  in  the  town  of  Denis  as  well  as  in  Paris. 

In  the  evening,  soon  after  seven,  Favre  himself  came  in  and 
the  Chancellor  had  an  interview  with  him  up  in  the  little  room 
next  his  own,  where  the  widow  Jesse's  eldest  son  used  to  live. 
The  conference  lasted  about  two  hours  and  a  half.  Meanwhile 
Hatzfeld  and  Bismarck-Bohlen  entertained  Favre's  companion, 
his  son-in-law,  whose  name  was  Del  Rio,  in  the  drawing-room 
below.  He  was,  it  appears,  properly  speaking  a  portrait-pain- 
ter, but  had  come  out  as  secretary  with  his  father-in-law.  Both 
of  them  got  something  to  eat,  whatever  was  to  be  had  at  a 
moment's  notice,  cutlets,  buttered  eggs,  ham,  &c.,  which  will  do 
them  good,  poor  martyrs  to  obstinacy !  Shortly  before  a  quai'ter 
to  eleven  they  both  set  off  to  return  to  their  lodging  here  in  a 
carriage  standing  at  the  door.  Accommodation  had  been  found 
for  them  on  the  Boulevard  du  Eoi,  where  Stieber  and  the 
field  police  happen  to  be  quartered.  Hatzfeld  escorted  the  gen- 
tlemen there.  Favre  seems  depressed,  and  his  dress  somewhat 
neglected ;  his  son-in-law,  who  is  a  little  man  of  southern  type, 
the  same.  Uslar  had  accompanied  them  here  from  the  out- 
posts. 

Tuesday,  January  24- — The  day  is  cloudy  and  foggy.  The 
Chief  got  up  before  nine  o'clock,  and  worked  with  Abeken. 
Shortly  before  ten  he  went  to  the  King,  or  as  we  now  say,  the 
Emperor.  He  did  not  come  back  till  about  one,  when  we  were 
sitting  at  breakfast.  He  ate  a  piece  of  fried  ham,  drank  a 
glass  of  Tivoli  beer,  sighed,  and  said  :  "  Till  now  I  have  always 
thought  that  the  parliamentary  method  of  conducting  State 
matters  was  the  most  wearisome  conceivable.  I  think  so  no 
longer.  At  any  r'ate  there  is  an  escape  with  the  last  motion 
that  is  made.  Here  every  one  brings  forward  his  individual 
opinion,  and  when  one  is  deluded  into  hoping  that  the  matter 
is  settled,  some  one  comes  out  with  an  opinion  which  he  has 
already  expressed,  and  which  has  been  refuted,  and  we  are 
back  again  where  we  started,  and  nothing  gets  done.  No  ;  I 
shall  be  pleased,  nay  thankful,  if  anything  is  yet  decided,  or 
will  even  be  decided  by  to-morrow."  He  then  observed  that  he 
expected  Favre  back,  and  had  advised  him  to  be  off  by  three 
o'clock  for  he  is  going  back  to  Paris,  lest  the  soldiers 
should  challenge  him  in  the  dark,  and  he  not  be  able  to  answer 
them. 


What  a  Barbarian!  327 

At  half  past  one,  Favre  again  called  on  the  Chancellor,  talk- 
ing with  him  for  nearly  two  hours,  after  which  he  returned 
home,  Bismarck-Bohlen  accompanying  him  as  far  as  the  Bridge 
of  Sevres. 

At  dinner,  where  we  had  lobster  mayonnaise,  the  talk  did 
not  turn  upon  this  interview.  But  it  seems  to  be  understood 
as  a  matter  of  co\irse  that  the  preliminaries  of  the  capitulation 
were  discussed  at  it.  The  Chief  first  spoke  of  Bernstorfi",  and 
said  :  "  I  have  not  arrived  at  the  point  of  writing  with  compla- 
cent diffuseness  sides  and  sheets  on  the  most  unimportant  things. 
A  heap  so  high  "  (he  showed  it  with  his  hand)  "  has  come  in  to- 
day. And  then  come  always  back-references — '  as  I  had  the 
honor  to  inform  you  in  my  despatch  of  January  the  3rd,  1863, 
jSTumber  so-and-so  ;'  or  *  as  I  said,  with  the  utmost  respect,  in 
my  telegram,  Number  1666.'  Then  I  send  it  to  the  King,  and 
he  wants  to  know  what  he  means,  and  pencils  on  the  margin, 
'I  don't  know  this.'"  Some  one  wanted  to  know  whether 
Goltz  had  written  as  much.  "Yes,"  said  the  Chief,  "and 
sometimes,  besides,  prirate  letters  to  myself,  of  six  or  eight 
closely-written  sheets.  Ho  must  have  had  a  fearful  amount  of 
time  on  his  hands.  Luckily  I  quarrelled  with  him,  and  that 
blessing  ceasejL"  One  of  the  company  wondered  'What  he 
would  have  said  if  he  had  seen  the  Emperor  in  prison,  the 
Empress  in  London,  and  Paris  besieged  and  bombarded  by  us  ? ' 
"  Well,"  replied  the  Chief,  "  the  Emperor  was  no  such  favorite 
of  his,  but  — in  spite  of  his  being  enamored — he  woiild  not  have 
been  as  pleased  with  all- this  as  other  people  are." 

The  death  of  a  Dutch  or  Belgian  princess  was  mentioned  and 
Abeken,  as  in  duty  bound,  expressed  his  sorrow.  The  Chief, 
however,  said,  "  How  can  you  take  it  to  heart  like  that  1  There 
is  no  Belgian  here  at  table,  and  no  relation." 

He  then  told  us  that  ra\Te  had  complained  to  him  that  we 
fired  upon  the  sick  and  blind  in  the  Blind  Institute.  "  I  do 
not  know  what  you  find  hard  in  that,"  said  I.  "  You  do  far 
worse  ;  you  shoot  at  our  men  who  are  in  sound  and  vigorous 
health.  *  What  a  Barbaiian  ; '  he  no  doubt  thought  to  him- 
self. " 

Mention  was  made  of  Hohenlohe  and  his  service  in  securing 
the  success  of  the  bombardment.  "  I  have  determined,"  said 
the  Chief,  "  to  confer  on  him  the  title  of  Poliorcetes  (sacker  of 
cities)."  The  conversation  turned  upon  the  statues  and  pic- 
tures of  the  Renaissance,  and  their  want  of  naturalness  and 


328        Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War. 

good  taste.  "  That  reminds  me,"  said  the  Chief,  "  of  the  Min- 
ister Schuckmann,  whom  his  wife  painted — en  coqiiille,  I  think 
it  was  called — in  a  rose-colored  cockle-shell,  ^nd  dressed  in  a 
kind  of  antique  costume,  naked  down  to  here — pointing  to  the 
bottom  of  his  waistcoat— as  I  certainly  never  saw  him."  "  He 
belongs  to  my  earliest  recollections.  They  often  gave  what 
were  then  called  Assemblies,  and  are  now  called  Routs — an 
Evening  without  supper.  My  parents  usually  attended  them." 
He  then  again  described  the  dress  of  his  mother,  and  went  on, 
"  Some  time  after,  there  was  an  ambassador  in  Berlin,  who  also 
gave  similar  balls,  where  we  danced  till  three  o'clock,  and  there 
was  nothing  to  eat.  I  know  that,  for  I  and  a  couple  of  good 
friends  often  went  to  them.  At  last  we  young  people  rebelled. 
When  it  grew  late  we  produced  bread-and-butter  from  our 
pockets  and  devoured  it.  Food  was  provided  the  very  next 
time,  but  we  were  never  invited  again." 


Fish  and  Oysters,  329 


CHAPTER  XVIL 

HBOOTIATIOXS  FOR  THE   CAPITULATION   OP  PABIS. 


WEDNESDAY,  January  ^J.— Count  Lehndorff  dined  with 
us.  The  conversation  first  turned  upon  the  heavy  losses 
sustained  by  the  French  in  their  sally  of  the  19th,  and  then 
upon  our  own  during  the  whole  campaign.  After  this  the  fish 
we  are  eating — mullet,  as  I  understand,  native  to  the  Adriatic, 
and  the  gift  of  Bleichroder  the  banker — gave  a  topic  for  fur- 
ther conversation,  in  which  the  Chief  took  part  with  the  anima- 
tion of  a  connoisseur.  As  I  have  already  said,  he  is  extremely 
fond  of  fish,  and  of  water  animals  generally. 

From  fish  we  pass  to  oysters,  and  after  dwelling  on  their 
virtues,  come  to  speak  of  bad  oysters,  which  Lehndorfi"  justly 
pronounces  to  be  the  most  horrible  things  one  can  imagine. 

Lehndorff  told  us  then  of  the  fine  hunting  grounds  and 
numerous  foresters  of  Prince  Pless.  The  King  had  lately  asked 
bim  :  "  Tell  me  now,  has  the  calling  out  of  your  foresters  incon- 
venienced you  very  greatly  1 "  "  Oh,  no,  your  Majesty,"  replied 
the  Prince.  "  How  many  of  them  then  were  called  out  ? "  "  Oh  \ 
only  forty,  your  Majesty."  I  fancy  that  I  came  across  a 
similar  story  some  years  ago,  only,  if  I  recollect  right  the 
Prince  was  an  Esterhazy,  and  the  foresters  shepherds. 

The  ]\Iinister  tlien  spoke  of  his  first  journey  to  St.  Peters- 
burg. He  set  off  in  a  carriage,  because  at  first  no  snow  had 
fiiUen.  Later  on,  however,  there  was  a  heavy  storm,  the  road 
was  completely  buried,  so  that  his  vehicle  only  got  along,  and 
very  slowly.  He  passed  five  days  and  six  nights  in  the  narrow 
carriage,  without  sleep,  and  at  thirty  degrees  of  frost,  before  he 
reached  the  first  railway  sta,tion.  But  the  moment  he  was  in 
the  railway  carriage  he  fell  so  fast  asleep  that  when  he 
arrived  at  St.  Petersburg,  after  a  ten  hours'  journey,  he  fancied 
he  had  only  stepped  into  the  train  five  minutes  before. 
22 


^30        Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War. 

"  They  had  their  good  side,  though,  those  days  before  rail- 
ways," he  went  on ;  "  one  had  not  so  much  to  do  then.  The 
post  day  only  came  round  twice  a  week,  and  then  we  worked 
"with  might  and  main.  But  the  moment  the  post  was  off  we  got 
on  horseback  again,  and  had  a  good  time  till  next  post." 
Some  one  observed  that  the  work  in  the  Embassies  as  well  as 
in  the  Foreign  Office  had  been  increased  far  more  by  the  tele- 
graph than  by  the  railway.  This  led  the  Chief  to  speak  of  the 
reports  of  ambassadors  and  diplomatic  agents  generally,  and  he 
remarked  that  many  of  them,  pleasant  enough  in  form,  contain- 
ed nothing.  "  It  is  newspaper  work,  written  just  for  ^vTiting's 
sake.  Such,  for  example,  were  the  reports  of  our  Consul 
(name  unimportant).  I  read  them  through,  and  am  always 
thinking,  'Now  it  must  becoming.'  But  nothing  comes.  It 
sounds  very  nice,  and  one  reads  on  and  on.  At  the  end,  how- 
ever, one  finds  that  there  really  is  nothing  in  it — it  is  all  barren 
and  meaningless."  Another  example  is  mentioned,  a  military 
commissioner,  who  had  also  come  out  as  an  author.  On  him 
the  Chief  passed  judgment.  "It  was  thought  he  would  do 
something  and  in  quantity  he  has  done  a  good  deal,  and  the 
form  is  good.  He  writes  pleasantly,  as  he  would  for  a  news- 
paper, but  when  I  get  to  the  end  of  his  reports,  closely  written 
in  a  small  neat  hand,  there  is  positively  nothing  in  them  for  all 
their  length." 

Coming  to  speak  once  more  of  tiring  journeys,  and  of  long 
Tides,  he  said,  "  That  reminds  me  of  the  battle  of  Koniggratz — 
I  was  the  whole  day  in  the  saddle,  on  my  big  horse.  I  partic- 
fularly  wished  not  to  ride  it,  because  it  was  so  high,  and  gave 
one  so  much  trouble  to  mount.  In  the  end,  however,  I  did  so, 
and  had  no  reason  to  regret  it.  It  was  an  excellent  beast. 
The  long  ri^e  across  the  valley  had  made  me  very  tired,  and 
my  seat  and  legs  were  very  sore.  But  I  had  not  overridden 
myself.  In  my  whole  life  I  have  never  done  that ;  but  when  I 
sat  down  afterwards  on  a  wooden  bench  and  began  writing,  I 
felt  as  if  I  was  sitting  on  something  else — some  strange  sub- 
stance between  me  and  the  bench.  It  was  only  the  swelling^ 
produced  by  the  long  ride, 

"After  Koniggratz  we  arrived  late  in  the  evening  at  the 
inarke1>place  of  Horsitz.  Here  the  word  was  that  gentlemen 
were  to  look  out  for  their  own  quarters.  It  was  easier  said 
than* done.  '"The  houses  were  shut  up,  and  we  ought  to  have 
had  pioneers  at  hand  to   break  open   the   doors.      But  they 


Uncomfortable  Quarters.  331 

would  not  have  come  to  their  work  till  five  o'clock  in  the 
morning."  "  Your  Excellency  got  over  that  difficulty  at  Grave- 
lotte,"  remarked  Delbriick.  "Well,  I  went  then,"  proceeded 
the  Chief  with  his  story,  "to  several  houses  in  Horsitz — three 
or  four,  and  at  last  I  found  a  door  open.  When  I  had  gone  in 
a  few  steps  I  fell  into  a  sort  of  wolf's-trap  on  the  fioor.  Luckily 
it  was  not  deep,  and  I  was  convinced  there  was  horse-dung  in 
it.  At  first  I  thought  '  how  would  it  do  to  stay  here  V  but  I 
aeon  became  aware  by  the  smell  that  there  was  something  else 
there ;  and,  strangely  enough  this  occurred  to  me  among  other 
things :  *  If  the  hole  had  been  twenty  feet  deep,  and  fuU, 
they  would  have  had  to  look  in  the  morning  a  long  time  for 
their  Minister.'  Well,  I  got  out  again,  and  found  a  place 
under  the  arcades  of  the  market-place.  There  I  laid  down  a 
couple  of  carriage  cushions  for  myself,  made  a  pillow  out  of  a 
third,  and  settled  myself  to  sleep.  When  I  had  lain  down,  my 
hand  came  in  contact  with  something  wet ;  and  when  I  ex- 
amined it  I  found  it  was  a  product  of  the  country.  Later  on 
some  one  woke  me.  It  was  Perponcher,  who  told  me  the  Grand 
Duke  of  Mecklenburg  had  a  shelter  for  me,  and  a  bed  into  the 
bargain.  That  was  all  right,  only  the  bed  was  a  child's  bed.  I 
stretched  myself  straight  out,  put  the  back  of  a  chair  at  my 
feet,  and  fell  asleej).  But  in  the  morning  I  could  scarcely 
stand,  from  lying  with  my  knees  on  the  chair-back.  If  only 
one  has  a  sack  of  straw,  one  can  make  oneself  comfortable, 
even  if  there  is  very  little  in  it,  as  often  happens.  You  cut  it 
open  in  the  middle,  shove  the  straw  back,  and  lie  in  the  trough 
thus  formed.  I  have  sometimes  done  that  in  Russia,  when  out 
hunting."  "  That  was  when  the  despatch  came  from  Najwl- 
eon,"  observed  Bohlen,  "  and  you  promised  you  would  pay  the 
Gaul  out  for  it  when  an  opportunity  came."  • 

Finally  the  Chief  said,  "The  day  before  yesterday  Favre 
told  me  that  the  first  shell  which  reached  the  Pantheon  had 
knocked  the  head  off  the  statue  of  Henri  Quatre."  "That 
must  have  affected  him  very  much  V  asked  Bohlen.  "  Oh, 
dear,  no  !"  replied  the  Chief.  "  I  am  inclined  to  think  that  he 
mentioned  it  as  a  democrat,  glad  that  that  should  have  hap- 
pened to  a  king."  "Well,"  said  Bohlen,  "this  is  the  second 
bad  time  the  king  has  had  ;  the  French  stabbed  him  in  Paris, 
and  we  have  beheaded  him  there." 

About  ten  o'clock,  when  Favre  was  stiU  here,  a  brisk  fire  of 
heavy  artillery  began,  which  lasted  about  an  hour.      After 


832        Bismarck  in  tJie  Franco-German  War. 

half -past  ten  I  went  down  into  the  tea-room,  where  I  found 
Hatzfeld  and  Bismarck-Bohlen  talking  to  del  Rio.  He  is  a 
man  of  middle  height,  with  a  full  dark  beard,  a  bald  patch  on 
his  crown,  and  an  eye-glass  on  his  nose.  Soon  after  my  en- 
trance, he  went  home  to  his  quarters  at  Stieber's,  accompanied 
by  Mantey,  and  a  quarter  of  an  hour  later  Favre  followed  him. 
Del  Rio  spoke  of  Paris  as  the  centre  of  the  world  ;  so  that  in 
this  bombardment  the  centre  of  the  world  is  our  bull's  eye.  He 
said  that  Favre  had  a  villa  in  Rueil,  and  a  large  cellar  in  Paris 
full  of  all  kinds  of  wines,  and  that  he  himself  had  a  property  in 
Mexico,  of  a  hundred  and  twenty  square  miles.  After  Favi-e 
left,  the  Chief  came  down  to  us,  ate  some  cold  partridge,  ordered 
back  a  slice  of  the  ham,  and  drank  a  bottle  of  beer.  After  a 
while  he  sighed,  pulled  himself  straight,  and  said,  "  Ah,  if  I 
could  only  settle  things  myself  and  give  my  orders."  He  was 
silent  a  minute,  then  went  on.  "The  wonder  to  me  is  that 
they  do  not  send  out  a  General.  It  is  hard  to  TCi$ke  him  under- 
stand military  matters."  He  gave  a  couple  of  French  words  : 
"That  means  the  mound  in  front  of  the  trench  on  the  out- 
side," then  another  two  :  "  and  that  is  the  inner  side.  He  did 
not  know  that."  "Well,  I  hope  you  found  he  had  had  a 
reasonable  dinner  to-day."  The  CMef  said,  Yes,  and  Bohlen 
remarked  here  that  a  rumor  had  spread  below  that  this  time  he 
had  not  even  despised  champagne,  but  drunk  it  like  any  one 
else.  "  Yes,"  said  the  Chief,  "  the  day  before  yesterday  he  re- 
fused it,  but  to-day  he  allowed  some  to  be  poured  out  for  him. 
Even  now,  he  had  conscientious  scruples  about  eating,  but  I 
talked  him  out  of  them,  and  htinger  must  have  helped  me ;  for 
he  ate  quite  like  a  man  who  has  long  fasted." 

The  Minister  told  us  something  of  his  interview  with  Favre. 
"  I  like  him  better  than  I  did  in  Ferrieres,"  said  he.  "  He 
speaks  fluently,  and  in  long,  well-balanced  periods — often  one 
is  not  obliged  to  attend  to  or  answer  him.  He  told  some  stories 
of  old  times,  and  he  tells  a  story  very  well."  "  He  did  not 
take  my  last  letter  at  all  amiss.  On  the  contrary,  he  said  he 
was  indebted  to  me  for  pointing  out  what  he  owed  to  himself." 
"  He  mentioned  also  that  he  owned  a  villa  near  Paris,  which, 
however,  had  been  plundered  and  ruined.  I  had  it  on  my 
tongue  to  say,  '  Not  by  us  though  ;'  but  he  at  once  added,  of 
his  own  accord,  that  it  might  have  been  by  the  Garde  Mobile." 
"  He  then  complained  that  the  town  of  Saint-Cloud  had  been 
burning  for  three  days,  and  wanted  to  convince  me  that  it  was 


Flogging.  333 

we  who  had  set  the  castle  there  on  fire."  "  Apropos  of  the 
Francs-tireurs  and  their  misdeeds,  he  wished  to  refer  me  to  our 
free  companions  in  1813,  who  had  behaved  far  worse.  I  said 
to  him,  '  That  I  will  not  deny,  but  you  must  remember  that 
the  French  shot  them  down  whenever  they  could  catch  them. 
And  they  did  not  shoot  them  aU  at  one  time,  but  five  at  the 
place  where  the  deed  was  done,  then  five  more  at  the  next 
halting-place,  and  so  on,  to  spread  terror.  He  asserted  that  in 
the  last  action,  on  the  19th,  the  men  of  th» National  Guard  who 
belonged  to  the  better  classes  had  fought  best ;  the  battalions 
taken  from  the  lower  classes  of  the  population  being  of  least 
worth." 

The  Chief  was  silent  for  a  time,  and  wore  a  thoughtful  ex- 
pression. Then  he  went  on,  "If  at  first  the  Parisians  get  a 
supply  of  provisions,  then  are  again  put  upon  haK  rations,  and 
have  to  starve  a  little,  that  will  work  I  think.  It  is  just  the 
same  with  flogging,  If  a  man  gets  too  many  lashes  one  after 
the  other,  not  much  effect  is  produced.  But  when  the  flogging 
is  stopped  for  a  time,  then  begun  again,  it  is  very  disagreeable. 
I  know  that  from  the  criminal  court  in  which  I  used  to  work. 
There  flogging  was  still  practised." 

The  conversation  then  passed  to  flogging,  generally ;  and 
Bohlen,  who  regards  it  as  useful,*  observed  that  even  the  Eng- 
lish had  re-introduced  it.  "Yes,"  said  Bucher;  "first  for  per- 
sonal assaults  upon  the  Queen — on  some  occasion  when  some 
one  struck  at  her — then  for  garotters."  The  Chief  then  told 
how  in  1863,  when  they  infested  London,  he  had  often  had  to 
pass,  after  1 2  o'clock  at  night,  from  Regent  Street  to  his  house 
in  Park  Street,  through  a  lonely  lane  where  there  was  nothing 
but  stables  and  heaps  of  horse  litter.  To  his  horror,  he  read 
in  the  papers  that  several  such  attacks  had  taken  pJace  in  that 
very  lane. 

After  a  while  he  said  :  "  That  is  an  unheard-of  proceeding 
on  the  part  of  the  English  !  They  wanted  (Odo  Pussell  inti- 
mated as  much,  but  the  Chief  refused  it,  as  not  permissible)  to 
send  a  gunboat  up  the  Seine,  as  they  say,  to  fetch  away  such  of 
the  English  families  there  as  wished  to  come.  They  really 
want  to  see  whether  we  have  laid  down  torpedoes."     "They 

*  Expressing  thereby  the  feeling  of  nine-tenths  of  the  German  people — I 
mean  the  actual  people,  not  the  people  of  the  liberal  press  and  the  public 
meetings. 


334        Bismarck  in  the  Franco- Gei^man  War. 

are  out  of  humor  because  we  have  fought  great  battles 
here,  and  -won  them  by  ourselves.  They  grudge  the  little, 
shabby  Prussian  his  rise  in  the  world.  They  look  upon  us 
as  a  people  who  are  only  here  to  make  war  for  them,  and  for 
pay." 

Thursday,  January  26. — Bright  weather,  and  again  rather 
cold.  Vigorous  firing,  while  I  was  still  in  bed.  To  my  jot- 
tings of  last  night  I  have  to  add  an  interesting  speech  of  the 
Chancellor's.  Whe^  at  tea  Bismarck-Bohlen  said,  "  That  is  a 
happy  idea,  the  picture  in  Kladderadatsch  ;  Napoleon  waiting 
for  the  train  and  saying,  '  There  is  the  whistle.'  He  has  his 
ermine  cloak  round  him  for  the  journey  back  to  Paris,  and  his 
travelling-bag  in  his  hand."  "  Yes,"  replied  the  Chief  ;  "so 
he  really  thinks,  and  he  may  be  right.  But  I  fear  he  will  be 
too  late  in  jumping  in.  At  the  end  there  may  be  no  other  way. 
It  may  be  easier  than  Favre  can  be  got  to  believe.  But  he 
will  need  half  the  army  to  establish  his  authority." 

About  two  o'clock,  Favre  came  again.  When  he  went  away 
in  about  an  hour's  time  to  go  back  to  Paris,  we  heard  that  it 
was  decided  he  should  come  again  at  eight  o'clock  in  the  morn- 
ing, with  a  general,  to  settle  the  military  questions — ^the  mili- 
tary questions,  that  is,  connected  with  the  Capitulation  !  That 
then  is  the  position  !  Paris  is  giving  in.  The  bombardment 
has  done  good  service  in  the  South,  and  still  more  in  the 
North,  and  the  bread-basket  is  getting  empty. 

Mr.  Hans  von  Rochow  and  Count  Lehndorif  were  present  at 
dinner.  The  Chief  spoke  of  Favre,  and  among  other  things 
said,  "  He  told  me,  that  on  Sundays  the  boulevards  were  still 
crowded  with  well  and  gaily  dressed  ladies  with  pretty  child- 
ren." I  replied,  '  I  wonder  they  have  not  eaten  you  up  before 
this.'  It  was  then  mentioned  that  to-day  the  bombarding  had 
gone  on  with  unusual  vigor,  and  the  Minister  remarked,  "  I 
remember  we  once  had  an  under-official  in  our  Court — Stepki, 
I  think  his  name  was — who  had  to  look  after  the  flogging.  He 
had  a  way  of  always  applying  the  three  last  lashes  with  special 
force — as  a  wholesome  reminder."  The  conversation  passed 
to  Stroussberg,  and  some  one  observed  that  he  now  was  likely 
"  to  go  to  the  dogs."  On  which  the  Chief  said,  "  He  once  said 
to  me,  '  I  know  I  shall  never  die  in  my  house.'  But  the  crash 
need  not  have  come  so  quickly.  Perhaps  not  at  all,  except  for 
the  war.  He  always  covered  his  advances  with  tresh  bonds, 
and  that  worked — although  other  Jews,    who  had  got  rich  be- 


Moray  arrives  in  Russia.  335 

fore  liim,  tried  ■mtli  all  their  might  to  spoil  his  game.  Then 
came  the  war,  and  down  went  his  Ex^umanians,  so  low  that 
they  might  be  valued  at  so  much  the  hundredweight.  For 
all  that  however,  he  is  a  clever  fellow,  and  of  restless 
activity," 

The  cleverness  and  restlessness  of  Stroussberg  led  some  one 
to  speak  of  Gambetta,  who,  he  claimed  to  know,  "  had  made 
his  five  millions  out  of  the  war,"  a  statement  which  others  of 
the  guests,  I  think  reasonably  doubted.  After  the  Dictator  of 
Bordeaux  came  Napoleon,  of  whom  Bohlen  said  it  was  asserted 
that  he  had  saved  at  least  fifty  millions  during  the  nineteen 
years  of  his  reign.  "  Others  say  eighty,"  added  the  Chief.  "  I 
look  upon  it  as  doubtful.  Louis  Phillippe  spoiled  the  game. 
He  allowed  hneutes  to  be  got  up,  and  then  brought  on  the 
Amsterdam  Bourse,  tUl  at  last  the  commercial  world  saw  what 
he  was  driving  at."  Hatzfeld  or  KeudeU  remarked  that  the 
industrious  King  had  fallen  ill  from  time  to  time  with  the 
same  object  in  view. 

It  was  then  observed  that  under  the  Empire  Momy  in  par- 
ticular had  known  how  to  make  money  in  every  possible  way, 
and  the  Chief  told  us  "  When  he  was  appointed  ambassador  to- 
St.  Petersburg,  he  came  with  a   whole  long  train   of  elegant 
carriages,  and  all  his  trunks,  and  chests,  and  boxes  full  of  laces^ 
and  si^s,  and  woman's  finery,  for  which  as  an  ambassador  he 
had  not  to  pay  duty.      Every  attendant  had  his  own  carriage  p 
every  attache,  or  secretary,  at  least  two,  and  he  himself  five  ov 
six.     After  he  had  been  there  a  few  days  he  sold  aU  his  things- 
by  auction — carriages,  and  lace,  and  fineries.       He   is  said  to- 
have   made  800,000  roubles  by  it.     He  was  unscrupulous,  but 
a  good  fellow — in  fact,  he  could  be  a  very  good  feUow."     He 
illustrated  this  by  examples,  then  went  on  :  "In  St.  Petersburg^ 
too,  they  had  a  very  good  notion   of  such   things — the  influ- 
ential people,    I  mean.     Not  that  they  took   money  directly^ 
But  when  any  of  them  wanted  anything,  he  went  into  a  French 
shop  and  bought  expensive  lace,  gloves,  or  jeweller}^,  for  thous- 
ands of  roubles.     But  the  shop  was  carried  on  in   the  interest 
of  the  official  they  wanted  to  get  at,  or  his  wife." 

In  the  evening  I  studied  drafts,  while  in  the  world  without 
cannon  were  roaring,  between  nine  and  ten  especially,  louder 
than  usual.  The  Chief  was  working  alone  in  his  room — prob- 
ably upon  the  terms  of  the  Capitulation  and  Armistice — and 
nothing  was  heard  of  him.     Below  it    was  rumored  that  a. 


336        Bismarck  in  the  Fraiico-German  War. 

negotiator  from  Napoleon  at  Wilhelmshohe  was  on  his  way  to 
us.  Tlie  ever-accumulating  business  has  caused  the  despatch  to 
Versailles  of  a  fourth  secretary,  who  has  arrived  to-day.  He 
is  a  Herr  Zesulka,  who  will  be  useful  as  a  copyist  and  deciph- 
erer, though  he  is  still  unemployed. 

Friday,  January  27. — At  half -past  eight  Moltke  came,  and 
was  closeted  with  the  Chief  for  about  three-quarters  of  an  hour. 
Shortly  before  eleven  appeared  the  Frenchman  :  Favre  (who 
had  cut  short  his  grey  demagogue's  beard)  with  his  pronounced 
underlip,  his  clear  eyes  and  yellowish  complexion  ;  General 
Beaufort  d'Hautpoule,  with  his  adjutant  Calvel,  and  a  "  chief 
of  the  engineers  of  the  Eastern  Railway,"  Diirrbach.  Beaufort 
seems  to  have  led  the  attack  upon  the  fort  at  Montretout,  on 
the  19th.  The  negotiations  of  these  gentlemen  with  the  Chief 
must  have  either  been  quickly  brought  to  a  point,  or  broken 
off^  for  soon  after  twelve,  while  we  were  seated  at  breakfast, 
they  went  out  at  the  back  of  the  house  and  got  into  the  carriage 
which  brought  them  here.  Favre  looks  depressed.  The  General  had 
a  remarkably  red  face,  and  seemed  not  quite  firm  on  his  legs.  This 
was  noticed  also  by  the  others.  Soon  after  the  Frenchman  had 
gone,  the  Chancellor  came  in  to  us,  and  said,  "I  only  want  a 
little  fresh  air ;  pray  don't  disturb  yourselves,  gentlemen." 
Then,  turning  to  Delbriick  with  a  shake  of  his  head,  he  said, 
"  There  is  no  getting  on  with  him  !  Really  not  a  responsible 
person,  I  believe  a  little  tipsy.  I  told  him  he  had  better  think 
it  over  till  half-past  one,  and  perhaps  he  may  come  to  his 
senses.  Hot-headed  !  ill-mannered  !  What  does  he  call  him- 
self ?  Something  like  Bonfire  or  Baufire  1"  "  Beaufort,"  said 
Keudell.  "Ah,"  said  the  Chief,  "the  name,  but  not  the 
manners  of  a  man  of  rank."  The  good  general  seems  in  fact 
— probably  his  ordinary  capacities  have  been  weakened  by 
hunger — to  have  attempted  more  than  he  could  stand,  and  eaten 
too  good  a  dejeuner. 

At  dinner  the  Chief  said  of  Beaufort  :  "  This  officer  behaved 
like  a  man  of  no  education.  Blustering,  and  shouting,  with 
great  oaths,  and  his  '  Moi,  general  de  Varmee  fra'n^aise,'  he  was 
hardly  to  be  borne.  He  was  always  playing  the  '  plain  soldier' 
and  the 'good  comrade.'  Moltke  was  once  or  twice  impatient, 
and  as  things  went  he  might  have  burst  out  fifty  times." 
"  Favre,  whose  own  manners  are  not  '  first-rate,'  said  to  me, 
J' en  suis  humilie  /'  (I  am  ashamed  of  this.)  However,  it  was 
drink,  a  common  thing  with  him." 


The  Land  of  Freedom.  337 

"  On  the  General's  staff  it  was  believed  that  he  had  been 
chosen  to  settle  matters,  with  the  intention  of  letting  it  all 
come  to  nothing.  '  On  the  contrary,'  said  I,  '  they  have  chosen 
him  because  it  mtvkes  no  difference  to  him  that  he  will  sink  in 
public  opinion  for  signing  the  Capitulation.' " 

He  then  told  us  :  "At  our  last  interview  I  said  to  Favre,  in 
French,  '  Vous  avez  etc  irahi — par  la  fortune '  ('  You  have  been 
betrayed — by  foi-tune').  He  saw  the  point  well  enough,  but 
he  only  said,  '  To  whom  do  you  say  that  1  Why,  in  three  or 
four  hours  I  also  shall  be  numbered  among  the  traitors.'  He 
added  that  his  position  in  Paris  was  a  hazardous  one.  I  pro- 
posed to  him  :  '  Provoke  an  emeute  then,  while  you  still  have 
an  army  to  suppress  it  with.'  He  looked  at  me  in  horror,  as 
much  as  to  say,  'What  a  bloodthirsty  fellow  you  are!'  He  has, 
moi-eover,  i\o  idea  of  how  things  are  with  us.  More  than  once 
he  pointed  out  to  me  tliat  France  was  the  land  of  Freedom, 
wliile  Despotism  reigned  with  us.  J  had  told  him,  for  instance, 
that  we  wanted  money,  and  Paris  must  let  us  have  some.  He 
said  that  we  might  raise  a  loan.  I  told  him  that  could  not  be 
done  without  the  lleichstag  or  Diet.  'What!'  said  he,  'why, 
surely  500,000,000  francs  could  be  raised  without  the  Cham- 
ber.' ' No,' replied  I,  'not  five  francs.'  He  could  not  believe 
it.  But  I  told  him  I  had  had  four  years'  experience  of  popular 
representation  in  time  of  war,  and  to  raise  a  loan  without  the 
Diet  had  always  been  the  point  to  wliich  I  had  got,  but  it  had 
never  occun*ed  to  me  to  go  beyond  it.  That  seemed  rather  to 
shake  him  in  his  opinion.  Ho  only  said  that  in  France  they 
would  not  stand  upon  ceremony  (on  'ne  se  generait  pas).  Then 
he  always  came  back  to  the  assertion  that  France  enjoyed  infin- 
ite liberty.  It  is  really  very  comical  to  hear  a  Frenchman  talk 
like  this — especially  Favre,  who  has  always  belonged  to  the 
opposition.  But  they  are  constituted  so.  You  may  give  a 
Frenchman  five-and-twenty  (lashes).  If  only  you  make  a  fine 
speech  at  the  same  time  aloout  Liberty,  and  the  Dignity  of  man 
which  it  expresses,  and  make  the  appropriate  attitudes,  he 
imagines  he  is  not  being  flogged." 

"Oh,  Keudell,"  he  then  said,  suddenly,  "that  reminds  me  : 
I  must  have  in  the  Morning  a  commission  from  the  King — in 
German  of  course.  The  German  Emperor  must  only  write 
German.  His  Minister  may  be  guided  by  circumstances.  Offi- 
cial correspondence  must  be  conducted  in  the  language  of  the 
country,  not  in  a  foreign  language.     Bernstorff  first  decided  to 


338        Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War. 

introduce  this  "with  us,  but  he  carried  it  too  far.  He  wrote  in 
German  to  all  the  Diplomatists,  and  they  all  answered  him — 
by  arrangement  of  course — in  their  own  languages,  Russian, 
Spanish,  Swedish,  and  I  know  not  what ;  so  that  he  had  to 
establish  a  regular  swarm  of  translators  in  the  bureau.  I  found 
matters  in  this  state  when  I  came  into  office.  Budberg  (the 
Russian  ambassador  in  Berlin  in  1858)  sent  me  a  note  in  Rus- 
sian. That  would  not  do.  If  they  had  wanted  to  revenge 
themselves  Gortschakoff  would  have  been  entitled  to  write 
in  Russian  to  our  ambassador  in  St.  Petersburg.  That 
would  have  been  right  enough.  It  is  reasonable  to  wish  that 
all  the  representatives  of  foreign  Powers  should  understand  and 
use  the  language  of  the  co\intry  to  which  they  are  accredited. 
But  for  me  in  Berlin  to  answer  a  German  letter  in  Russian  was 
unreasonable.  I  made  up  my  mind-  therefore — ^whatever  comes 
in,  that  is  not  German,  or  French,  or  English,  or  Italian,  re- 
mains as  it  is,  and  goes  into  the  cupboards.  Well,  Budberg 
wrote  reminder  upon  reminder,  always  in  Russian.  No  an- 
swer ;  the  things  were  always  passed  on  to  the  cupboard.  At  last 
came  the  man  himself,  and  asked  why  he  had  had  no  answer. 
'  Answer,'  said  I  in  astonishment ;  '  to  what  ?  I  have  seen 
nothing  from  you.'  Well,  he  had  written  four  weeks  ago,  and . 
sent  several  reminders  since.  '  Indeed  !  Ah,  now  I  think  of  it 
there  is  a  heap  of  documents  in  Russian  writing,  lying  below  ; 
they  may  pehaps  be  among  those.  But  no  one  downstairs  un- 
derstands Russian,  and  whatever  comes  in  an  unintelligible 
language  goes  into  the  cupboard.' "  It  was  then  agreed,  if  I 
understand  rightly,  that  Budberg  was  to  write  in  French,  and 
the  Foreign  Office  might  occasionally  do  so  also. 

Sunday,  January  29. — A  cloudy  sky.  Our  troops  march  to 
occuppy  the  forts.  In  the  morning  I  read  despatches  upon  the 
London  conference,  and  other  business,  as  well  as  the  Armistice 
and  Capitulation  convention  signed  yesterday.  The  latter  fills, 
in  our  copy,  ten  folio  pages,  and  is  sewn  together  with  threads 
in  the  French  colors,  to  the  ends  of  which  Favre  has  affixed  his 
seal.  The  contents  are  briefly  as  follows :  An  armistice  of 
twenty-one  days  is  agreed  upon,  which  is  to  hold  good  over  the 
whole  of  France.  The  contending  armies  roSintain  their  positions, 
which  are  signified  by  a  line  of  demarcation,  defined  in  the 
memorandum  of  agreement.  The  object  of  the  armistice  is  to 
enable  the  Government  of  National  Defence  to  summon  a 
freely-elected  assembly  of  representatives  of  the  French  people, 


The  Armistice.  330 

to  decide  the  question  whether  the  war  is  to  be  continued,  or 
peace  concluded,  and  on  what  conditions.  The  elections  are  to 
be  perfectly  free  and  undisturbed.  The  Assembly  meets  at 
Bordeaux. 

The  forts  of  Paris  are  to  be  handed  over  to  the  German  army, 
which  is  to  occupy  other  parts  of  the  outer  line  of  defence  of 
Paris  up  to  an  appointed  boundary.      During  the   armistice 
German  troops  are  not  to  enter  the  city.     The  enceinte  loses 
its  guns,  the  carriages  of  which  will  be  taken  into  the  forts. 
The  whole  garrison  of  Paris  and  the  forts,  with  the  exception 
of  12,000  men,  who  are  left  to  the  authorities  for  service  in- 
side, become  prisoners  of  war,  and  must,  officers  excepted,  give 
up  their  armies  and  remain  in  the  city.     After  the  armistice 
has  run  out,  in  case  peace  is  not  then  concluded,  they  are  to 
give  themselves  up  to  the  German  army  as  prisoners  of  war. 
The  Francs-tireiirs  will  be  disbanded  by  the  French  Govern- 
ment.    The  National  Guard  of  Paris  retain  their  armsf  so  as 
to  preserve  order  in  the   city,  and  the  same  applies  to   the 
gendarmes,  the  republican  guard,  the  excise  officers,  and  the 
firemen.     After  the  surrender  of  the  forts  and  the  disarming 
of  the  enceinte,  the  re  victualling  of  Paris  will  be  allowed  by 
the  Germans.     Only  the  provisions  destined  for  this  object  must 
not  be  taken  from  regions  occupied  by  our  troops.     Whoever 
wants  to  leave  Paris  must  have  a  pass  from  the  French  military 
authorities,  with  a  vise  by  the  German  advanced  posts.     This 
pass  and  vise  is  to  be  given  to  those  who  Avish  to  canvass  the 
provinces,  as  well  as  to  the  deputies  elected  to  the  National 
Assembly  at  Bordeaux.     The  town  of  Paris  pays  within  four- 
teen days  a  war-contribution  of  two  hundred  million  francs 
(£8,000,000),     During  the  armistice  none  of  the  public  prop- 
erty which  might  contribute  to  this  payment,  is  to  be  removed. 
During  this  time  also  the  introduction  of  arms  or  ammunition 
into  Paris  is  forbidden. 

Count  Henckel  and  a  French  adjutant  dined  with  us.  The 
latter  whose  full  name  is  d'Herisson  de  Saulnier,  wore  a  black 
hussar's  uniform,  with  yellow  epaulets,  and  embroidery  on  the 
fore  arm.  He  is  said  to  understand  German  and  to  speak  it, 
though  the  conversation,  in  which  the  Chief  took  an  active  part, 
was  carried  on  mostly  in  French.  To-day,  when  Favre  and  the 
General  were  not  present — the  former  was  in  the  house  but  he 
was  so  busy  he  had  his  dinner  taken  to  him  in  the  little  draw- 
ing-room— the  Frenchman  was  even  more  lively,  sprightly  and 


340        Bisniarck  in  the  Franco-German  War. 

amusing  than  yesterday.  For  a  long  time  he  bore  the  whole 
burden  of  the  conversation,  telling  us  good  stories  and  anecdotes 
one  after  the  other.  He  stated  also,  that  the  starvation  in  the 
city  had  latterly  been  much  felt,  though  he  appeared  to  know 
the  cheerful,  better  than  the  serious  aspect  of  it.  He  said  that 
the  period  in  the  fast  which  he  had  found  most  interesting  was 
when  they  "ate  up  the  Jardin  des  Plantes."  Elephant's  flesh, 
he  told  us,  cost  9  francs  the  poimd,  and  tasted  like  coarse  beef. 
Then  there  had  been  actually _^^e<  de  cliameauajidcdtelettes  de  tigre 
-^— on  which,  as  on  other  points  in  his  narrative,  we  made  no 
remarks.  The  dog's  fleslli  market  was  set  up  in  the  Rue  Saint- 
Honore,  and  a  pound  cost  about  a  shilling.  There  were  hardly 
any  dogs  now  to  be  seen  in  Paris,  and  when  one  came  round 
the  corner  three  or  four  people  at  once  started  off  in  chase. 
The  same  with  the  cats.  Whenever  a  pigeon  was  seen  on  a 
roof  the  street  was  in  a  moment  full  of  men  anxious  to  catch  it. 
Only  the  carrier  pigeons  were  spared.  These  carried  the  de- 
spatches in  the  middle  of  their  tail  feathers,  of  which  they 
ought  to  have  nine.  If  one  had  only  eight,  it  was  at  once 
said,  "  He  is  only  a  civilian,  and  he  must  go  the  way  of  all 
flesh."  A  lady  is  supposed  to  have  said,  "  I  shall  never  eat 
pigeon  again ;  I  should  always  be  feeling  that  I  had  swallowed 
the  letter  carrier." 

In  return  for  these  and  other  stories  the  Chief  told  him 
various  things  that  could  not  have  been  known  of  in  the  Paris 
clubs  and  salons,  and  which  he  might  like  to  hear,  as,  for  in- 
stance, the  ordinary  behavior  of  Rothschild  in  Ferrieres,  and 
the  metamorphosis  by  which  the  Elector  of  Hesse  had  convert- 
ed grandfather  Amschel  from  a  small  Jew  into  a  big  one. 
He  called  him  repeatedly  "Juif  de  la  cour,"  and  thereby  hit  off 
a  characteristic  of  the  household  Jews  of  the  Polish  nobility. 

At  tea  the  Chief  afterwards  remarked  that  Favre  had  admit- 
ted to  him  to-day  that  he  had  acted  a  little  rashly  in  the  matter 
of  revictualling.  He  really  did  not  know  whether  it  would  be 
possible  to  provide  the  many  hundred  thousands  of  people  in  the 
town  with  food  in  time.  Somebody  said,  "  Storch  can  hand 
over  some  oxen  and  flour  in  case  of  need."  "  Yes,"  replied  the 
Chief,  "  that  he  must  do,  but  he  must  see  that  we  come  to  no 
harm  by  it."  Bismarck-Bohlen  thought  we  need  not  give 
them  anything ;  they  might  see  for  themselves  where  they 
could  get  it,  and  so  on.  "  What  T'  said  the  Chief,  "  Do  you 
want,  then,  to  let  them  starve]"     "Certainly,"  said  Bohlen. 


Minister  Washhv/me.  341 

"Then,"  said  the  Chief,  "how  should  we  manage  to  raise  our 
war  contribution  1" 

In  the  course  of  further  conversation  he  said :  "Important 
State  business  and  negotiations  with  the  enemy  do  not  worry 
me.  If  they  make  objections  to  my  ideas  and  demands,  even 
when  I  am  unreasonable,  I  take  it  calmly.  But*  the  small 
wrangling  of  mere  land-lubbers  in  political  affairs,  and  their 
ignorance  of  what  is  or  is  not  possible  !  First  comes  one  and 
wishes  this,  then  another  who  considers  that  indispensable. 
When  you  have  got  rid  of  them,  up  comes  a  third,  an  adjutant 
or  adjutant-general,  who  says,  *But,  your  Excellency,  that  is 
impossible,'  or  'We  must  have  that,  else — '  Why,  yesterday  they 
actually  wanted  a  clause  which  had  never  been  discussed  to  be 
inserted  in  a  document  already  signed  ! " 

Some  one  said  that  Rothschild  had  been  supplied  with  a  pass- 
port, and  wanted  to  be  let  out.  Thereupon  the  Chief  remarked, 
"  It  would  be  a  good  thing  to  detain  him  as  a  Franc-tireur — to 
be  reckoned  among  the  prisoners  of  war."  (To  Keudell):  "Just 
find  out  about  that."  "Then  Bleichroder  will  appear,"  cried 
Bohlen,  "and  beg  on  his  knees  in  the  name  of  the  entire 
Rothschild  family."  Reference  was  then  made  to  the  surpris- 
ing fact  that  an  accurate  resume  of  the  convention  signed  yester- 
day was  already  to  be  seen  iil  the  Daily  Telegraph. 

Tuesday,  January  31. — In  the  morning  I  telegraphed  various 
small  successes  in  the  South-Eastem  departments,  where,  by 
agreement  the  armistice  does  not  at  present  hold  good.  The 
King  of  Sweden  has  delivered  a  warlike  sounding  speech  from 
the  throne.  Wherefore,  ye  gods  %  I  prepared  two  articles  by 
command  of  the  Chief,  and  then  a  third,  describing  the  suffer- 
ings endured  through  the  siege  by  a  number  of  unoffending 
German  families,  who  for  one  cause  or  another  had  remained  in 
Paris  during  the  siege  ;  and  mentioning  with  praise  the  services 
in  alleviating  the  lot  of  these  unfortunates  rendered  by  Wash- 
bume,  the  United  States  ambassador.  His  conduct  in  this 
respect  is  really  most  worthy  of  our  gratitude,  and  his  subor- 
dinates faithially  seconded  his  efforts. 

The  Parisian  gentlemen  are  here  again,  with  Favre,  who  is 
urgently  entreating  Gambetta,  by  telegram,  to  give  in.  It  is  to 
be  feared  that  he  will  not  do  so.  The  Prefect  of  Marseilles  at 
least  has  mounted  the  high  horse,  and  snoil^d  down  upon  poor 
Favre  the  patriotic  speech:  "  Je  n'obeis  le  capitule  de  Bismarck. 
Jene  le  connais  plus."     ("I  owe  no  obedience  to  the  man  who 


^42        Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War. 

has  capitulated  to  Bismarck  ;  I  know  him  no  longer.")  Proud 
and  valiant  ;  but  it  is  well  to  be  far  away  from  the  firing.  It 
is  not  yet  certain  whether  Bourbaki  has  shot  or  only  wounded 
himself :  his  army,  however,  is  clearly  in  a  bad  way.  It  will 
turn  out  to  have  been  made  up  like  the  other  creations  of  the 
Dictator  of  Tours. 

After  ten  o'clock  the  Chief  came  down  and  sat  with  us.  He 
began  talking  directly  about  the  unpractical  character  of  the 
Frenchmen  who  had  been  working  with  him  lately.  Two  Min- 
isters— Favre,  and  the  Finance-Minister,  Magnin,  who  had  come 
out  with  him  this  time — ^had  actually  spent  half  an  hour  toiling 
over  a  telegram.  He  then  took  occasion  to  speak  of  the  French 
generally,  and  the  whole  Latin  race,  and  to  compare  them  with 
the  German  nations.  "  The  Teutonic,  or  Germanic  race,"  said 
he,  "  is,  so  to  speak,  the  masculine  element,  which  goes  all  over 
Europe  and  fructifies  it.  The  Celtic  and  Slav  peoples  represent 
the  female  sex.  The  former  element  extends  up  to  the  North  Sea, 
and  across  it  to  England."  I  ventured  to  say :  "  Even  to 
America  ;  to  the  Western  States  of  the  Union,  where  men  of 
our  race  are  the  best  part  of  the  population,  and  influence  the 
morale  of  the  rest."  "Yes;  these  are  its  children,  its  fruits," 
replied  he.  We  have  already  seen  in  France  what  the  Franks 
are  worth.  The  Revolution  in  1789  meant  the  overthrow  of  the 
German  element  by  the  Celtic  ;  and  what  is  the  result  1 

*'  In  Spain,  too,  the  Gothic  blood  long  preponderated  ;  and 
the  same  in  Italy,  where  the  Germans  had  also  taken  the  lead 
in  the  northern  provinces.  When  that  died  away,  farewell  to 
order.  It  was  much  the  same  in  Russia,  where  the  German 
Warager,  the  Ruriks,  first  gathered.  If  the  national  party 
were  to  overcome  the  Germans  who  have  settled  there,  or  those 
who  cross  over  from  the  Baltic  provinces,  the  people  would  not 
remain  capable  of  an  orderly  constitution."  "  Certainly  things 
don't  as  a  matter  of  course,  go  straight,  even  with  full-blooded 
Germans.  In  our  South  and  West,  for  example,  when  they 
were  left  to  themselves  there  was  nothing  but  Knights  of  the 
Empire,  Towns  of  the  Empire,  and  Villages  of  the  Empire, 
each  for  itself,  so  that  the  whole  thin*  went  to  pieces.  The 
Germans  are  all  right  when  they  are  united  by  compulsion  or 
by  anger — then  they  are  excellent,  irresistible,  invincible — 
otherwise  every  man  '  gangs  his  ain  gate.' "  "  After  all,  a 
kindly,  upright  and  sensibly-conducted  absolutism  is  the  best 
form  of  government.     Unless  there  is  something  of  that  kind 


The  Beer-jug  Story,  343 

everything  goes  wrong ;  one  man  wishes  one  thing,  another 
another,  and  there  is  perpetual  hesitation,  perpetual  delay." 
"  But  we  have  no  longer  any  thorough-going  Absolutists.  They 
have  gone — the  species  has  died  out."  I  took  the  liberty  to 
say,  "  Might  I  ask,  jawc  Excellency,  whether  there  is  any  truth 
in  the  story  of  the  beer-jug,  which  you  are  supposed  to  have 
broken  in  two  over  some  one's  head  in  a  Berlin  public-house, 
because  he  had  insulted  the  Queen,  or  had  refused  to  drink  to 
herl"  "Yes,"  replied  he,  "but  the  circumstances  were  differ- 
ent, and  there  were  no  politics  in  the  matter.  I  was  going 
home  late  one  evening — it  must  have  been  in  the  year  1847 — 
when  I  met  a  man  who  had  had  too  much,  and  wanted  to  pick  a 
quarrel  with  me.  When  I  upbraided  him.  for  his  offensive 
language  I  found  he  was  an  old  acquaintance.  I  think  it  was 
in  the  Jagerstrasse.  We  had  not  met  for  a  long  time,  and 
when  he  proposed  to  me  to  go  to  such-and-such  a  place  I  went 
with  him,  though  he  had  clearly  had  enough.  After  we  had  our 
beer,  however,  he  feel  asleep.  Well,  near  us  was  a  party  of 
people,  one  of  whom  had  also  more  than  was  good  for  him,  as 
was  evident  from  his  boisterous  behavior.  I  was  quietly  drink- 
ing my  beer.  My  being  so  quiet  vexed  him,  so  he  began  to 
taunt  me.  I  sat  still,  and  that  made  him  only  the  more  angry 
and  spiteful.  He  went  on  taunting  me  louder  and  louder.  I 
did  not  wish  for  '  a  row,'  but  I  would  not  go  lest  they  should 
think  I  was  afraid.  At  last  his  patience  seemed  exhausted, 
he  came  to  my  table  and  threatened  to  throw  the  jug  of  beer  in*o 
my  face,  and  that  was  too  much  for  me.  I  told  him  he  must 
go,  and  when  he  then  made  a  gesture  as  if  to  throw  it,  I  gave 
him  one  under  the  chin,  so  that  he  measured  his  length  on  the 
floor,  smashed  the  stool  and  the  glass,  and  went  clean  to  the 
wall.  The  hostess  came  in,  and  I  told  her  she  might  make 
herself  quite  easy,  as  I  would  pay  for  the  stool  and  glass.  To 
the  company  I  said,  '  You  see,  gentlemen,  that  I  sought  no 
quarrel,  and  you  are  witnesses  that  I  restrained  myself  as  long 
as  I  could,  but  I  was  not  going  to  let  him  pour  a  glass  of  beer 
over  my  head,  because  I  had  been  quietly  drinking  mine.  If 
the  gentleman  has  lost  a  tooth  by  it,  I  am  sorry.  But  I  acted 
in  self-defence.  Should  any  one  Avant  more,  here  is  my  card.' 
They  turned  out  to  be  quite  sensible  people,  who  took  -nuch 
the  same  view  of  the  matter  as  I  did.  They  were  indignant  with 
their  comrade,  and  said  I  was  right.  I  afterwards  met  two  of 
them  at  the  Brandenburg  Gate.     '  You  were  present,  gentle- 


344        Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War. 

men,  I  think,'  said  I,  '  when  I  had  the  adventure  in  the  beer- 
house in  the  Jagerstrasse  1  AVhat  became  of  your  friend  ?  I 
should  be  sorry  if  he  sustained  any  injury.'  They  had  been 
obliged  to  carry  him  out.  '  Oh,'  said  they,  '  he  is  quite  well 
and  lively,  and  his  teeth,  too,  are  all  right  again.  He  kept 
very  quiet,  and  was  very  sorry.  He  had  just  entered  upon  his 
year's  service  as  a  doctor,  and  it  would  have  been  very  unpleas- 
ant for  him  had  the  affair  come  to  the  ears  of  people,  especially 
of  his  superiors.'" 

The  Chief  then  told  us  that,  when  a  student  in  Gottingen, 
he  had  twenty-eight  duels  in  three  terms,  and  had  always  come 
well  out  of  them.  "  But  once,"  said  I,  "  your  Excellency  got 
hit.  What  was  the  name  of  the  little  JHannoverian — Bieden- 
feld  1"  "  Biedenweg,"  he  I'eplied  ;  "  and  he  was  not  little  either, 
but  nearly  as  big  as  I  was.  But  that  only  happened  oecause 
his  sword-blade,  which  was  probably  screwed  in  badly,  came  off. 
It  flew  into  my  face  and  stuck  there.  Otherwise  I  was  never 
once  hit.  Once,  however,  in  Greifswald,  I  came  near  it.  They 
had  introduced  there  a  marvellous  sort  of  head-dress — like  a 
felt  coffee-bag.  They  had  broadswords  too,  to  which  I  was  not 
accustomed.  Now  I  had  taken  it  into  my  head  that  I  would 
cut  off  the  peak  of  my  opponent's  coffee-bag,  and  in  so  doing  I 
exposed  myself,  and  his  stroke  whistled  quite  close  to  my  face ,: 
but  I  sprang  back  just  in  time." 

Wednesday,  Febi'uary  7. — The  conversation  at  dinner  turned 
upon  the  story  of  the  fortunes  and  development  of  the  Germai} 
question.  The  Chief  observed,  "  I  remember,  thirty  or  morr 
years  ago,  in  Gottingen,  I  made  a  bet  with  an  American  as  tc' 
whether  Germany  would  be  united  in  twenty  years.  We  wag- 
ered five-and-twenty  bottfes  of  champagne,  which  the  man  who 
won  was  to  stand,  while  the  loser  was  to  cross  the  sea  for  it. 
He  was  against  and  I  for  the  Unity.  I  thought  of  it  in  1853, 
and  intended  to  go  across.  But  upon  inquiry  I  found  he  was 
dead.  He  had  just  the  sort  of  name  which  promised  no  lengtl^ 
of  life — Cofiin  !  The  most  remarkable  thing  is  that  I  must  at 
that  time,  in  1833,  already  have  had  the  ideas  and  hopes,  which 
now  by  God's  help  have  been  realized,  although  then  my  rela- 
tions with  the  party  that  wished  for  Unity  had  only  been 
antagonistic." 

The  Chief  lastly  expressed  his  belief  in  the  influence  of  the 
Moon  upon  the  growth  of  hair  and  of  plants,  and  then  pro- 
ceeded to  joke  Abeken  upon  the  excellence  of  his  barber.   "You 


Bismarck's  Letter  to  Favre.  345 

look  quite  young  again,  Mr.  Privy  Councillor,"  said  he  j 
"  would  I  were  your  wife  !  You  have  had  it  cut  just?  at  the 
right  time,  when  the  moon  was  waxing.  It  is  just  so  with 
trees.  If  they  are  wanted  to  grow  again,  they  are  felled  dur- 
ing the  first  quarter ;  if  you  wish  to  cut  them  clean  away,  you 
do  it  when  the  moon  is  on  the  wane,  and  then  the  root  decays 
more  quickly.  There  are  people,  scholars,  who  do  not  believe 
this  ;  but  the  State  itself  acts  on  the  belief,  though  it  will  not 
openly  confess  it.  No  forester  is  allowed  to  fell  a  birch-tree, 
which  is  to  throw  off  suckers  again,  when  the  moon  is  waning." 

Thursday,  February  2. — At  dinner  Odo  Russell,  and  a  tall, 
strong  young  man  in  dark  blue  uniform,  were  our  guests.  The 
latter,  I  was  told,  was  Count  Bray,  son  of  .the  Minister,  and 
formerly  in  the  Bavarian  Embassy  at  Berlin.  The  Chief  said 
to  Russell,  "The  English  papers,  and  some  German  ones  too, 
have  found  fault  with  my  letter  to  Favre,  and  called  it  too  harsh. 
He  himself  does  not  seem  to  be  of  that  opinion.  He  said  to 
me  of  his  own  accord,  '  You  have  done  right  to  remind  me  of 
my  duty.  I  ought  not  to  go  away  before  the  end.' "  After 
praising  this  self  renunciation,  the  Minister  repeated  that  our 
Parisians  were  unpractical  people,  and  that  we  were  continually 
obliged  to  advise  and  assist  them.  He  added,  that  they  now 
showed  signs  of  wishing  amendments  in  the  Convention  of 
January  28.  Outside  the  city  of  Paris  very  little  willingness 
to  help  in  its  re-provisioning  was  displayed.  The  directors  of  the 
Rouen  andDieppeRailway,forinstance,  whose  assistance  had  been 
counted  upon,  said  they  were  short  of  working  stock,  as  their  loco- 
motives had  been  taken  to  pieces,  and  carried  over  to  England. 
Gambetta's  action  was  still  doubtful,  though  he  seemed  to  be 
thinking  of  continuing  the  war.  It  Was  necessary  that  France 
should  soon  have  a  regular  Government.  "  If  they  do  not  soon 
establish  one,"  he  went  on,  "  we  will  give  them  a  king.  Every- 
thing is  ready  for  it.  Amadeo,  with  a  travelling-bag  in  his 
hand,  entered  Madrid  as  King  of  Spain.  Our  King  is  coming 
immediately  with  a  train,  with  ministers,  cooks,  chamberlains, 
and  an  army." 

The  conversation  then  turned  upon  the  property  of  Napol- 
eon, which  was  very  differently  estimated,  now  as  great,  and 
again  as  inconsiderable.  Russell  seemed  to  doubt  whether  he 
had  much.  The  Empress,  at  least,  he  thought,  could  not  have 
much,  for  she  never  had  more  than  six  thousand  pounds  de- 
posited in  the  Bank  of  England. 
23  . 


346        Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War. 

Touching  upon  the  subject  of  public  speaking,  the  Chief 
said  :  ^'The  gift  of  oratory  has  ruined  much  La  parliamentary 
life.  Time  is  wasted  because  every  one  who  feels  ability  in 
that  line,  must  have  his  word,  even  if  he  has  no  new  point  to 
bring  forward.  Speaking  is  too  much  in  the  air,  and  too  little 
to  the  point.  Everything  is  already  settled  in  committees :  a 
man  speaks  at  length  therefore  only  for  the  public,  to  whom  he 
wishes  to  show  off  as  much  as  possible,  and  still  more  for  the 
newspapers,  who  are  to  praise  him.  Oratory  will  one  day 
come  to  be  looked  upon  as  a  generally  harmful  quality,  and  a 
man  will  be  punished  who  allows  himself  to  be  guilty  of  a  long 
speech.  We  have  one  body,"  he  continued,  "  which  admits  no 
oratory,  and  has  yet  done  more  for  the  German  cause  than  al- 
most any  other — the  CouncU  of  the  Confederation.  I  remem- 
ber that  at  first  some  attempts  were  made  in  that  direction. 
But  I  put  a  stop  to  them. 

"  I  said  to  them  something  like  this  :  '  Gentlemen,  we  have 
nothing  to  do  here  with  eloquence  and  speeches  intended  to 
produce  conviction,  becavise  everyone  brings  his  conviction  with 
him  in  his  pocket — I  mean,  his  instructions.  It  is  so  much 
time  lost.  I  propose  that  we  confine  ourselves  here  to  the  state- 
ment of  facts.'  And  so  it  was  ;  no  one  agaia  made  a  long 
speech.  We  get  on  so  much  the  faster  with  our  business ;  and 
the  Council  of  the  Confederation  has  really  done  a  great  deal." 

Friday,  February  8. — About  a  quarter  to  four  I  was  sent 
for  by  the  Chief.  Gambetta  has  followed  Laurier's  example 
and  himself  made  a  declaration  which  is  thoroughly  war- 
like and  despotic.  Summoned  to  the  Chief  at  eight 
o'clock,  I  received  instructions  to  send  for  insertion  in  the 
Moniteur  a  copy  of  a  Renter's  telegram  dated  Bordeaux, 
February  2.     It  ran  thus  : — 

"  The  journals  La  Liberie,  La  Patrie,  Le  Francis,  Le  Corir 
stitutionnel,  U  Universel,  Le  Courrier  de  la  Gironde  et  Provence, 
publish  a  protest  against  the  Manifesto  issued  by  the  Delega- 
tion of  Bordeaux  on  January  31st,  restricting  the  freedom  of 
election.  They  say,  that  before  publishing  this  protest  they 
considered  it  their  duty  to  send  three  deputies  to  M.  Jules 
Simon,  to  ask  whether  there  was  not  existing  a  proclamation 
bearing  upon  the  elections,  which  had  been  issued  by  the  Par- 
isian Government  and  published  in  the  Journal  Officiel.  M. 
.J  ules  Simon  answered,  that  this  manifesto  did  exist,  that  it 
l)Ore  date  January  31st,  and  had  been  unanimously  accepted  by 


Condition  of  Free  Elections.  847 

the  members  of  tlie  Government ;  and  that  in  it  there  were  no 
restrictions  on  the  liberty  of  election.  The  only  point  insisted 
upon  had  been  that  prefects  were  not  eligible  in  the  provinces 
where  they  exercised  their  functions.*  The  elections  in  Paris 
have  been  fixed  for  February  5th  ;  in  the  provinces  for  February 
8th.  The  Deputies  are  to  meet  on  the  12th.  The  Journal 
Officiel,  containing  this  proclamation,  has  been  sent  out,  by  or- 
der of  the  Parisian  Government,  into  all  the  Departments. 
Jules  Simon  obtained  a  passport  on  January  31,  and  started  off 
on  the  same  morning.  On  his  arrival  at  Bordeaux  he  summon- 
ed a  meeting  of  the  members  of  the  Delegation,  in  order  to  ex- 
plain fully  to  them  the  state  of  matters.  At  four  o'clock  in 
the  afternoon  a  long  discussion  took  place.  Jules  Simon 
declared  to  the  representatives  of  the  press  that  he  was 
prepared  to  stand  by  the  proclamation  of  the  Parisian 
Government,  and  authorized  them  to  publish  this  declaration. 
The  undersigned  representatives  of  the  press  have  therefore 
only  to  wait  the  execution  of  the  Parisian  proclamation."  Then 
follow  the  signatures.  Gambetta's  dictatorship,  then,  has  pro- 
bably at  last  come  to  an  end.  His  stubbornness  has  cut  the 
grovmd  from  beneath  his  feet. 

I  was  once  more  summoned  to  the  Chief.  I  telegraphed  the 
news  of  the  successful  battles  of  Manteuffel's  southern  army  at 
Pontarlier.  We  have  taken  there  15,000  French  prisoners, 
including  two  generals,  nineteen  guns  and  two  eagles. 

Saturday,  February  4- — The  weather  is  warmer  than  yester- 
day. In  the  morning  I  read  the  news  and  some  drafts.  I  see 
that  the  Chief  has  protested  against  Gambetta's  Election  Cir- 
cular in  a  double  way — iu  a  telegram  addressed  to  himself,  and 
in  a  note  to  Favre.  The  former  runs  : — "In  the  name  of  the 
freedom  of  election  guaranteed  by  the  Armistice-Convention,  I 
protest  against  the  instructions  issued  in  your  name,  depriving 
numerous  classes  of  the  French  people  of  the  right  of  election 
to  the  Assembly.  The  rights,  which  are  given  in  the  armistice- 
convention  to  freely-elected  deputies,  cannot  be  acquired 
through  elections  carried  on  under  the  influence  of  oppression 
and  despotism."  After  briefly  summarising  the  contents  of 
Gambetta's  election-decree,  the  despatch  of  Favre  proceeds ; — 
*'  I  take  the  liberty  of  putting  to  your  Excellency  the  question 
whether  you  consider  this  in  accordance  with  the  pro"vision  of 

*  The  main  heads  of  this  manifesto  have  been  given  above. 


348        Bismarck  in  the  Franco-Geirman  Wa/r. 

the  convention,  that  the  Assembly  is  to  be  constituted  by  free 
election.  Will  your  Excellency  allow  me  to  recall  to  your  re- 
collection the  negotiations  which  preceded  the  convention.  Even 
then  I  expressed  my  fear  that  it  would  be  found  difficult  under 
existing  conditions  to  secure  full  liberty  of  election,  and  to 
prevent  any  attempt  that  might  be  made  against  it.  Having 
this  fear  which  has  now  been  justified  by  M,  Gambetta's  cir- 
cular, I  raised  the  question  whether  it  would  not  be  better  to 
summon  the  Legislative  Body,  which  was  a  lawful  authority, 
elected  by  universal  sufirage.  Your  Excellency  declined  this, 
and  gave  me  your  express  promise  that  no  pressure  should  be 
put  upon  the  electors,  and  the  fullest  freedom  of  election  should 
be  assured  to  them.  I  appeal  to  your  Excellency's  sense  of 
fairness  in  asking  you  whether  you  think  the  exclusion  of  whole 
categories  of  candidates,  declared  fundamentally  in  the  decree 
now  in  question,  is  compatible  with  the  liberty  of  election  guar- 
anteed in  the  convention  of  January  28th.  I  consider  myself 
entitled  to  express  a  confident  hope  that  that  decree,  the  appli- 
cation of  which  would  appear  to  contradict  the  provisions 
of  the  Convention,  will  be  immediately  withdrawn,  and  that 
the  Government  of  National  Defence  will  take  such  meas- 
ures as  will  eflfectually  guarantee  the  carrying  out  of  the  second 
article  of  the  convention,  regarding  the  liberty  of  election.  We 
could  not  allow  to  persons  elected  according  to  the  stipulations 
of  the  Bordeaux  Circular,  the  rights  guaranteed  to  the  deputies 
of  the  National  Assembly  by  the  Armistice-Convention." 

After  ten  the  Chief  sent  for  me,  to  say,  "  Here  is  a  complaint 
from  Berlin  that  the  English  papers  are  far  better  informed  than 
ours,  and  that  we  communicated  to  our  papers  so  little  of  the 
negotiations  for  the  armistice.  How  is  this  ?"  "  Well,  your 
Excellency,"  replied  I,  "  it  is  because  the  English  have  more 
money,  to  go  everywhere  and  pick  up  information.  And  then 
they  are  so  well  recommended  to  eminent  personages,  who  tell 
them  about  everything — and,  besides,  the  military  are  not  always 
quite  close  alSbut  things  which  ought  to  be  kept  secret.  I  could 
only  allow  such  of  the  negotiations  for  the  Convention  to  be 
published  as  it  was  proper  should  appear."  "  Well,  then,"  said 
he,  "write,  pray,  on  this  subject,  and  say  that  circumstances, 
and  not  we,  are  to  blame." 

I  ventured  then  to  congratulate  him  upon  the  announcement 
of  honorary  citizenship,  which  he  is  said  to  have  received  lately, 
and  to  remark  that  Leipzig  was  a  good  town,  the  best  in  Saxony, 


A   Constitutional  Barbarian.  349 

and  one  that  I  had  always  held  dear.  "  Yes,"  replied  he,  "  an 
honorary  citizen — I  am  a  Saxon,  now,  and  a  Hamburger,  too, 
for  I  have  one  from  there  also.  That  could  not  have  been  hoped 
for  in  1866." 

I  was  going,  when  he  said,  "  That  reminds  me — it  is  one  of 
the  marvels  of  this  time — write,  please,  something  in  detail  upon 
the  singular  fact  that  Gambetta,  who  has  so  long  had  the  char- 
acter of  representing  liberty,  and  of  fighting  against  the  influence 
of  Government  in  the  elections,  now,  when  he  is  himself  in  power, 
authorizes  the  most  flagrant  encroachments  upon  freedom  of  elec- 
tion, and  is  debarring  from  the  privilege  of  being  elected  aU 
whom  he  believes  not  to  hold  his  own  views — that  is,  the  whole 
of  official  France,  with  the  exception  of  thirteen  republicans. 
That  I  should  have  to  restore  to  the  French  their  liberty  of 
election,  in  opposition  to  this  Gambetta  and  his  accomplice  and 
confederate.  Garibaldi,  is  another  wonderful  thing."  I  said, 
"  I  do  not  know  whether  it  was  intentional,  but  in  your  protest 
to  Gambetta  it  had  a  very  strange  eSect :  the  contrast  between 
the  sentence  where  *  in  the  name  of  the  freedom  of  election ' 
you  guarded  yourself  against  'the  directions  issued  in  your 
(Gambetta's)  name  for  depriving  numerous  classes  of  the  right 
of  election.'  Might  that  be  pointed  out  1"  "  Yes,"  said  he ; 
"pray  do  so."  "You  may  also,"  he  added,  smiling,  "remind 
people  that  Thiers,  after  his  negotiations  with  me,  called  me  an 
amiable  barbarian.  They  now  call  me  in  Paris  a  shrewd  bar- 
barian i^un  barbare  astutieux'),  next  time  I  shall  probably  be 
the  constitutional  barbarian." 

The  Chief  rode  out  about  one  o'clock,  but  was  "  caught " 
after  all  by  Favre,  who  came  in  in  the  meantime,  and  worked 
with  him  up  in  the  little  drawing-room. 

Prince  Putbus  and  Count  Lehndorff"  were  present  at  dinner. 
The  Chief  told  us  first  that  he  had  called  Favre's  attention  also 
to  the  remarkable  fact  that  he,  who  was  decried  as  the  despotic 
and  tyrannical  Count  von  Bismarck,  had  been  obliged  to  pro- 
test, in  the  name  of  freedom,  against  the  proclamation  of 
Gambetta,  the  advocate  of  freedom,  who  wished  to  deprive 
many  hundreds  of  his  countrymen  of  eligibility,  and  all  of 
freedom  of  election.  He  added  that  Favre  had  acknowledged 
this  with  a  "  oui,  c^ est  bien  drole."  However,  the  restrictions 
upon  free  election,  authorised  by  Gambetta,  had  been  by  this 
time  withdrawn  and  repealed  by  the  Parisian  part  of  the 
French  Government     "  He  told  me  so,"  said  he,    "  this  morn- 


350        Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War. 

ing  by  letter  (that  which  was  brought  by  the  officers  of  the 
National  Guard),  and  has  now  confirmed  it  by  word  of  mouth." 

It  was  then  mentioned  that  several  German  papers  had  been 
discontented  with  the  Capitulation,  haviag  expected  our  troops 
to  march  at  once  into  Paris.  Thereupon  the  Chief  remarked  : 
"  That  arises  from  total  ignorance  of  the  situation  here  and  in 
Paris.  I  might  have  arranged  it  with  Favre,  but  the  popula- 
tion—  They  had  strong  barricades,  and  300,000  men,  of 
whom  certainly  100,000  would  have  fought.  Enough  blood — 
German  blood — has  been  shed  in  this  war.  If  we  had  tried  to 
use  force,  far  more  would  have  been  spilt  in  the  irritation  of 
the  inhabitants.  Merely  to  inflict  another  hnmiliation  upon 
them, — it  would  have  been  bought  too  dear."  After  a  little 
meditation  he  went  on,  "  And  who  told  them  we  should  not 
still  march  in  and  occupy  a  part  of  Paris  *?  Or  at  least  march 
through,  when  they  have  cooled  down  and  listened  to  reason. 
The  Armistice  will  probably  have  to  be  prolonged,  and  in  re- 
turn for  this  concession,  we  can  demand  to  occupy  Paris  on  the 
right  bank.  I  think  we  shall  be  there  in  some  three  weeks." 
"  The  24th  "—he  thought  a  little—"  yes,  it  was  a  24th  when 
the  Constitution  of  the  North  German  Confederation  was  pro- 
claimed. It  was  on  the  24th  of  February,  1859,  that  we  lived 
to  see  a  shameful  event  in  Frankfort.  I  told  them  at  the 
time  that  they  would  be  paid  out  for  it.  You  will  soon  see. 
Exoriare  aliquis — I  am  only  sorry  that  the  Wurtemberger 
(the  ambassador  of  the  Diet),  old  Reinhart  has  not  lived  to  see 
it.  But  Prokesch  has,  I  am  glad  to  say,  who  was  the  worst. 
He  is  now  quite  at  one  with  us,  praises  the  energetic  and 
spirited  policy  of  Prussia,  and  always"  (here  the  Minister 
lanehed  ironically)  *'  or  long  ago,  at  least,  recommended  Union 
with  us." 

ihe  Chief  then  mentioned  that  he  had  been  to-day  at  Mont 
Valerien.  "  I  was  never  there  before,"  said  he,  "  and  when 
one  sees  the  strong  earthworks  and  numerous  provisions  for 
defence — we  should  have  left  many  men  lying  there  if  we  had 
attempted  to  storm  it  ;  I  cannot  think  of  it," 

He  next  informed  us  that  Favre  had  to-day  come  over  to  ask 
us  to  let  out  of  Paris  the  crowds  of  country  people  who  took 
refuge  in  the  town  in  September.  They  were  mostly  people 
from  the  suburbs,  and  must  number  about  300,000.  "  I 
refused  him,"  he  went  on  ;  "  giving  him  for  answer,  *  Our 
soldiers  are  occupying  their  houses,  and  if  the  possessors  come 


Favre's  Letter  to  Bismarck.  351 

out  and  see  how  their  property  has  been  carried  off  and  ravaged 
they  will  be  furious  (and  I  cannot  blame  them),  and  tax  our 
people  with  it ;  and  that  might  lead  to  awkward  scuffles,  and 
perhaps  something  worse.' "  He  then  recurred  to  his  excursion 
to  Saint-Cloud  and  Suresnes,  and  said  incidentally  :  "  When  I 
was  looking  at  the  place  in  the  castle  where  the  fire  was,  and 
thinking  of  the  room  where  I  had  dined  with  the  Emperor,  a 
well-dressed  gentleman,  who  had  probably  come  from  Paris, 
was  there,  being  taken  about  by  a  man  in  a  blouse.  I  could 
easily  make  out  what  they  were  saying,  for  they  spoke  loudly, 
and  I  have  good  ears.  '  G'est  V  ceuvre  de  Bismarck,'  said  the  man 
in  the  blouse.  But  the  other  only  answered  :  *  C'est  la  guerre.' 
If  they  had  known  that  I  heard  them  !  " 

From  eight  o'clock  I  read  drafts  and  letters,  including 
Favre's  answer  to  the  Chief's  inquiry  about  Gambetta's  election 
manceuvre.      It  runs  thus  : — 

"  You  are  right  to  appeal  to  my  sense  of  justice,  in  which 
you  will  never  find  me  wanting.  It  is  quite  true  that  your 
Excellency  urged  me  strongly  to  adopt  as  the  only  possible 
expedient — the  summoning  of  the  former  Legislative  Body.  I 
declined  this  on  several  grounds,  which  I  need  not  recall,  but 
which  you  have  certainly  not  forgotten.  In  answer  to  the  remon- 
strances of  your  Excellency,  I  said  that  I  believed  myself  suf- 
ficiently sure  of  my  country  to  be  able  to  assert  that  its  only 
wish  is  for  free  election,  and  that  the  principle  of  the  Sovereignty 
of  the  people  is  its  only  resource.  That  will  be  enough  to 
show  you  that  I  cannot  agree  to  the  restriction  which  has  been 
laid  on  the  elector's  right  of  voting. 

"  I  have  not  fought  against  the  system  of  official  candida- 
tures, to  re-introduce  it  for  the  benefit  of  the  present  Govern- 
ment. Your  Excellency  may  therefore  rest  assured  that  if  the 
decree,  of  which  you  speak,  has  been  issued  by  the  delegation 
at  Bordeaux,  it  will  be  recalled  by  the  Government  of  National 
Defence.  I  only  ask  to  be  allowed  to  procure  for  myself  an 
official  assurance  of  the  existence  of  this  decree,  which  I  can 
do  by  a  telegram  to  be  despatched  to-day.  Accordingly  there 
is  no  difference  of  opinion  between  us,  and  we  must  work  each 
with  the  other  for  the  execution  of  the  convention  we  have 
signed." 

At  nine  o'clock  I  am  .called  to  the  Chief,  who  wishes  an 
article  written  to  the  effect  that  the  entry  of  our  troops  is  im- 
practicable just  now,  but  possible  later  on.     It  was  a  criticism 


352        Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War. 

of  the  armistice  in  the  National  Zeitung,  "which  suggested 
this. 

Sunday,  February  6. — A  milder  day  ;  the  spring  seems 
already  drawing  near.  In  the  morning  I  worked  diligently. 
The  Chief's  guests  at  dinner  are  Favre,  d'Herisson,  and  the 
Director  of  the  Western  Railway,  a  man  apparently  about 
thirty-six  years  old,  with  a  broad,  jolly-looking,  laughing 
countenance.  Favre,  who  sits  at  the  upper  end  of  the  table, 
looks  anxious,  harrassed,  and  depressed,  hangs  his  head  on 
one  side  or  by  way  of  a  change  upon  his  breast,  di'ops  his 
under-lip.  When  he  is  not  eating  he  folds  his  hands  upon  the 
table-cloth,  in  token  of  his  submission  to  the  will  of  fate,  or 
crosses  his  arms  like  the  first  Napoleon,  to  show  that  oai  a 
closer  consideration  of  matters  he  still  feels  like  himself.  Dur- 
ing dinner  the  Chief  speaks  only  French,  and  mostly  in  ii 
subdued  voice.  I  was  too  far  off  to  be  able  to  follow  him 
distinctly. 

In  the  evening  I  am  several  times  sent  for  by  the  Chief,  and 
various  matters  are  prepared  for  the  press.  The  four  members 
of  the  Bordeaux  Delegation  have,  we  learn  by  telegraph,  issued 
a  proclamation  confirming  Gambetta's  decree  about  the  elec- 
tions. It  is  stated  therein  that  Jules  Simon,  member  of  the 
Parisian  Government,  has  brought  news  to  Bordeaiix  of  an 
election  decree,  which  does  not  tally  with  that  issued  by  the 
Government  in  Bordeaux.  The  Government  in  Paris  had  been 
shut  up  for  four  months,  and  cut  off  from  all  connection  with 
public  opinion  ;  nay  more,  they  are  at  the  present  time  in  the 
position  of  prisoners  of  war.  There  is  nothing  against  the 
supposition  that,  had  they  been  better  informed,  they  would 
have  acted  in  accord  with  the  government  in  Bordeaux  ;  and  as 
little  to  prove  that,  when  they  gave  Jules  Simon  orders  to  see 
after  the  elections,  they  would  have  expressed  themselves  in 
unqualified  and  offensive  terms  against  the  ineligibility  of  cer- 
tain persons.  The  Bordeaux  government  therefore  considers 
itself  bound  to  abide  by  its  election  decree  ;  and,  in  spite  of 
the  interference  of  Count  Bismarck  in  the  internal  affairs  of  the 
country,  maintains  its  position  in  the  name  of  the  honor  and  the 
interests  of  France. 

An  open  quarrel  has  thus  been  introduced  in  the  ememy's 
camp,  and  Gambetta's  retirement  may  be  looked  for  at  any 
moment.  The  Parisian  Government,  in  a  proclamation  to  the 
French  on  the  4th,  which  appears  in  the  Journal  Officiel,  and 


Bwdeaux  and  Fai^ib.  353 

will  be  printed  in  the  Moniteur,  has  branded  Gambetta  as  "  un- 
just and  foolhardy "  {si  injv^te  et  si  temeraire),  and  then 
declared  :  '-We  have  summoned  France  to  the  free  election  of 
an  Assembly,  which  shall  make  kno^v^l  her  wishes  at  this  ex- 
treme crisis.  We  recognise  no  man's  right  to  force  a  decision 
upon  the  country,  whether  it  be  for  peace  or  for  war.  A 
nation  which  is  assailed  by  a  powerful  foe,  fights  to  the  uttter- 
most,  but  retains  the  right  of  judging  at  what  moment  resistance 
oeases  to  be  possible.  This,  then,  is  what  the  country  will 
decide  when  questioned  as  to  its  destiny.  In  order  that  its 
v.tLI]  may  be  imposed  on  all  as  recognised  law,  we  need  the 
sovereign  expression  of  the  free  votes  of  all  We  do  not  admit 
^,bat  arbitrary  restrictions  can  be  put  upon  the  voting.  We 
have  overcome  the  Empire  and  its  practices,  and  we  do  not 
int^jiid  to  begin  them  over  again  by  introducing  the  expedient  of 
an  official  exclusion  of  candidates.  Nothing  is  more  true  than 
that  great  mistakes  have  been  made,  entailing  severe  responsi- 
bilities, but  all  this  is  hidden  by  the  misfortunes  of  the  country. 
Should  we  condescend  to  the  rdle  of  partisans,  by  pointing  the 
finger  at  our  former  opponents,  we  should  briag  upon  ourselves 
the  pain  and  the  disgrace  of  punishing  men  who  are  fighting 
and  shedding  their  blood  in  our  cause.  To  remember  past 
dissensions  at  the  moment  when  masses  of  the  enemy  are  in 
occupation  of  our  blood-drenched  soU,  is  so  far  to  injure  the 
great  work  of  delivering  our  country.  We  place  our  principles 
above  these  expedients.  We  do  not  wish  the  first  proclama- 
tion summoning  the  Republican  Assembly  in  the  year  1871,  to 
be  an  act  of  disrespect  to  the  electors.  To  them  belongs  the 
ultimate  decision  ;  let  them  give  it  without  weakness,  and  our 
country  may  be  saved.  The  Gt)vemment  of  National  Defence 
rejects,  tfierefore,  the  illegally-issued  decree  of  the  Bordeaux 
Delegation,  and  declares  it,  as  far  as  is  necessary,  null  and 
void ;  and  it  calls  upon  all  Frenchmen  without  distinction  to 
give  their  votes  for  such  representatives  as  seem  to  them  best 
fitted  to  defend  France." 

At  the  same  time  to-day's  Journal  Officiel  publishes  the  fol 
lowing  proclamation  : — "  The  Government  of  National  Defence, 
in  regard  to  a  decree  dated  January  31st,  issued  by  the  Delega- 
tion in  Bordeaux,  in  which  various  classes  of  citizens,  who  are 
eligible  according  to  the  Government  decree  of  January  29, 
1871,  are  declared  ineligible,  gives  notice  as  follows  :  'The 
before-mentioned  decree  issued  by  the  Bordeaux  Delegation  is 


354        Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War, 

annvilled.     The  decrees  of  January  29,   1871,  remain  in   full 
force  throughout.' " 

Monday,  Febritary  6. — Mild  weather.  In  the  morning  the 
Chief  wishes  an  article  written  against  Gambetta. 

In  the  evening  I  drew  up  a  paragraph  upon  the  Times  tele- 
gram from  Berlin,  to  the  efiect  that  at  the  conclusion  of  peace 
we  shall  demand  from  the  French  twenty  ironclads,  the  colony 
of  Pondicherry,  and  ten  Milliards  of  francs  as  war  indemnity. 
I  described  it  as  a  downright  invention,  which  one  could  hardly 
imagine  would  have  been  believed  or  would  have  given  anxiety 
in  England  ;  and  I  indicated  the  source  from  which  it  was  pro- 
bably derived — the  brain  of  some  clumsy  person  in  the  diplo- 
matic world,  who  wishes  us  ill  and  is  spinning  intrigues  against 
us. 

General  von  Alvensleben,  Count  Herbert,  and  Bleichroder, 
the  banker,  dine  with  us.  There  is  nothijig  remarkable  in  the 
conversation,  the  Chief  speaking  mostly  in  a  low  voice  to 
Alvensleben.  I  feel  exhausted,  probably  on  account  of  my  sit- 
ting up  every  night  over  my  journal.  I  must  stop  it  or  cut  it 
shorter.  There  is  to-day  a  fine  additional  trait  to  be  noted  in 
Gambetta's  activity.  The  Soir  states,  that  some  days  after  the 
last  sortie  of  the  Parisians  the  following  despatches  were  pub- 
licly posted  up  by  the  Dictator's  orders  in  all  the  country  com- 
munes not  occupied  by  us  : 

"  Three  days'  battle!  On  the  17th,  18th,  and  19th,  Wednes- 
day, Thursday,  and  Friday.  On  the  last  day,  Friday,  a 
magnificent  sortie  ;  200,000  men,  the  troops  commanded  by 
Trochu,  broke  through  Saint-Cloud  and  over  the  heights  of 
Garches.  The  Prussians  were  driven  out  of  the  park  of  Saint- 
Cloud,  where  terrible  slaughter  took  place.  The  French  forced 
their  way  up  to  the  toll-gate  of  Versailles.  Result :  20,000 
Prussians  hors  de  combat,  all  their  works  destroyed,  their  guns 
taken,  spiked  or  thrown  into  the  Seine.  The  National  Guard 
fought  in  the  van."  If  Gambetta  talks  like  this  of  Paris,  where 
his  statements  can  easily  be  checked,  what  fictions  may  he  not 
have  imposed  upon  the  provincials  ! 

Thursday,  February  9. — To-day,  for  once  in  a  way,  the 
Parisians  did  not  come.  In  the  morning  I  read  the  text  of  the 
address,  with  which  Gambetta,  at  6  p.m.,  took  his  leave  of  the 
French  people.     It  runs — 

"  My  conscience  obliges  me  to  resign  my  office  as  member  of 
a  government  whose  views  or  hopes  I  am  no  longer  able  to 


Gambetta's  Resignation.  355 

share.  I  have  the  honor  to  inform  you  that  I  have  to-day  sent 
in  my  resignation.  I  thank  you  for  the  patriotic  and  indul- 
gent support  I  have  always  received  from  you  when  it  was  a 
question  of  carrying  to  a  satisfactory  conclusion  the  task  I  had 
undertaken,  and  I  beg  to  be  allowed  to  tell  you  that  my  deeply- 
formed  conviction  is,  that  considering  the  short  notice  and  the 
grave  interests  which  are  at  stake,  you  will  do  a  great  service 
to  the  Republic,  if  you  take  in  hand  the  elections  on  the  8th  of 
February,  and  reserve  to  yourselves  the  right  of  coming  after  this 
period  to  such  conclusions  as  become  you.  I  pray  you  to  accept 
the  expression  of  my  fraternal  sentiments." 

The  Chief  rode  out  to-day  before  two  o'clock  with  Count 
Herbert,  and  a  young  lieutenant  of  the  body-guard,  the  son  of 
his  cousin  Bismarck-Bohlen  (who  is  Governor-General  in  Elsass). 
He  did  not  come  back  till  after  five.  Of  the  conversation  at 
dinner,  where  both  these  gentlemen  were  present,  the  following 
is  noteworthy.  The  Chancellor,  speaking  again  of  the  Paris 
contribution,  said,  "  Stosch  told  me  he  could  use  fifty  millions 
in  bank  notes  to  make  payments  inside  France  for  provisions 
and  the  like.  But  the  other  hundred  and  fifty  must  be  funded 
in  due  course."  Speaking  afterwards  of  the  fable  of  our  think- 
ing of  taking  possession  of  Pondicherry,  after  giving  other  ex- 
planations of  this  clumsy  invention,  he  said,  "I  want  no 
colonies.  They  are  good  for  nothing  but  supply  stations.  For 
us  in  Germany,  this  colonial  business  would  be  just  like  the 
silken  sables  in  the  noble  families  of  Poland,  who  have  no 
shirts  to  their  backs."  He  added  further  remarks  in  the  same 
sense. 

In  the  evening  the  Chief  sent  me  for  consideration  a  very 
confused  and  wrong-headed  letter  from  Jacoby,  teeming  with 
slanders  and  misrepresentations,  in  La  Frcmce, 


356        Bismarck  in  the  FraTico-German  War. 


CHAPTEH  XVm. 

FROM  OAMBETTA'S  RETIREMENT  TO  THE  CONOl-USION   OF   THE 
PEACE  PRELIMINARIES. 


SATURDAY,  February  27.— Fine  bright  weather.  In  the 
morning  I  read  newspapers,  and  especially  certain  pro- 
ceedings of  the  English  Parliament  down  to  the  end  of  last 
month.  It  would  seem  as  if  our  good  friends  across  the  Chan- 
nel were  seriously  leaning  to  the  French  side,  and  were  not  in 
disposed  to  interefere  once  more,  so  that  an  Anglo-French 
alliance  might  possibly  come  to  pass. 

Count  Henckel  and  Bleichroder  were  the  strangers  present  at 
dinner.  It  was  mentioned  that  Scheidtmann,  in  his  dealings 
with  the  French  financiers,  had  used  expressions  about  them 
that  were  more  forcible  than  complimentary,  not  knowing  that 
some  of  the  gentlemen  understood  German.  The  Chief,  speak- 
ing of  the  insolence  of  the  Parisian  papers,  who  behaved  just  as 
if  the  town  were  not  in  our  hands,  said,  "  If  this  goes  on,  they 
must  be  told  plainly  that  we  will  put  up  with  it  no  longer  ;  it 
must  cease,  or  we  will  throw  in  a  few  shells  from  the  forts  in 
answer  to  their  articles." 

It  was  mentioned  that  the  French  were  carrying  on  all  kinds 
of  smuggling  in  the  provisioning  of  Paris.  It  was  not  from 
pride  that  they  had  not  availed  themselves  of  our  contributions, 
but  simply  because  nothing  was  to  be  made  out  of  them.     This 

extends  even  to  the  Government  circles,  as during  these 

few  days  has  made  700,000  francs  by  the  purchase  of  sheep. 
"  We  must  let  them  see  that  we  are  aware  of  this,"  said  the 
Chief,  glancing  at  me ;  "it  will  do  us  a  turn  in  the  peace  ne- 
gotiations."    It  was  attended  to  at  once. 

In  the  evening  I  prepared  several  articles  by  the  Chief's 
instructions.  We  ought  no  longer  to  allow  the  shamelessness 
of  the  Paris  journalists.     It  passes  the  bounds  of  endurance, 


Fans  JS-eivspapers  on  the  Germans.  357 

and  the  limits  of  reasonable  toleration,  when  the  French  press 
presumes  to  mock  and  insult  us  to  our  faces,  their  conquerors, 
before  the  walls  of  their  capital,  ■which  is  wholly  in  our  power. 
Besides,  their  lies  and  insults  are  hindrances  to  the  conclusion 
of  peace,  by  embittering  both  sides  and  delaying  the  approach 
of  a  calmer  state  of  feeling.  This  behavior  could  not  have 
been  foreseen  at  the  conclusion  of  the  Armistice-Convention  ; 
and  in  the  case  of  a  prolongation  of  the  armistice,  which  may 
be  necessitated  by  this  delay,  we  shall  be  obliged  to  consider 
what  means  there  are  of  effectually  preventing  further  insults. 
The  best  means  would  undoubtedly  be  the  occupation  of  the 
city  itself  by  our  troops. 

Sunday,  February  12. — "We  learn  by  telegraph  that  Napoleon 
has  issued  a  proclamation  to  the  French.  The  telegram  is  to  be 
printed  in  our  paper  to-day.  The  Chief  seems  to  be  unwell.  He 
does  not  come  to  dinner.  Abeken  therefore  takes  the  chair,  in 
\'irtue  of  the  position  he  delights  to  feel  that  he  occupies  in  the 
office,  of  Vice-Seoretary  of  State.  The  entry  into  Paris  is  spoken 
of  as  inevitable,  and  the  old  gentleman  wishes  to  ride  in  the  train 
of  the  Emperor.  He  intends,  therefore,  to  send  for  his  three- 
cornered  hat  from  Berlin  :  "  It  would  never  do  to  put  on  a 
helmet  for  the  occasion,"  said  he  ;  "  although,  when  one  comes 
to  think  of  it,  Wilmowski  has  one."  Hatzfeld  thought  that  a 
Greek  helmet  with  big  white  feathers  would  look  fine.  "  Or 
one  with  a  visor,  that  could  be  dropped  at  the  moment  of  the 
entry,"  put  in  another  guest.  Bohlcn  finally  proposed  a  velvet 
cloth,  trimmed  with  gold  lace,  for  the  Privy  Councillor's  gray 
horse.  He  took  all  these  quizzing  suggestions  as  put  forward 
quite  seriously  for  discussion. 

Wednesday,  February  22. — The  Assembly  in  Bordeaux  shows 
an  intelligent  regard  for  the  situation  which  the  last  four  weeks 
have  produced.  They  have  turned  out  Gambetta  and  elected 
Thiers  as  Chief  of  the  Executive  Power,  and  spokesman  for 
France  in  the  Peace  negotiations,  which  began  here  yesterday. 
A  propos  of  this,  the  Chief  said  yesterday  at  dinner,  where 
Henckel  was  present,  "  If  they  gave  a  Milliard  more,  we  might 
perhaps  let  them  have  Metz.  We  would  then  take  eight  hun- 
dred million  francs,  and  build  ourselves  a  fortress  a  few  miles 
further  back,  somewhere  about  Falkenberg,  or  towards  Saar- 
briicken — there  must  be  some  suitable  spot  thereabouts.  We 
should  thus  make  a  clear  profit  of  two  hundred  millions. 

Generals  Von  Kamecke  and  Yon  Treskow  were  our  guests 


358        Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War, 

to-day.  The  Chief  told  us  of  his  second  interview  to-day  with 
Thiers.  "  When  I  demanded  that  of  him  "  (I  missed  hearing 
what),  "  though  he  is  usually  well  able  to  control  himself,  he 
rose  to  his  full  height  and  said,  ^  Mais  c'  est  une  indignite  /' 
(That  is  an  indignity  !)  I  would  not  allow  myself  to  make  a 
blunder,  but  I  spoke  to  him  in  German  after  this.  He  Listened 
for  a  time,  and  probably  did  not  know  what  to  make  of  it. 
Then  he  began  in  a  querulous  tone,  '  But  M.  le  Comte,  you  are 
aware  that  I  know  no  German.'  I  replied  to  him — this  time 
in  French,  "When  you  spoke  just  now  of  "indignity,"  I 
found  that  I  did  not  understand  French  sufficiently,  so  I  pro- 
ceeded to  speak  German,  where  I  know  both  what  I  say  and 
what  I  hear.'  He  at  once  caught  my  meaning,  and  as  a  con- 
cession wrote  out  what  I  had  proposed,  and  what  he  had  form- 
erly considered  an  indignity. 

" '  And  yesterday,'  he  went  on,  *  he  spoke  of  Europe  as  likely 
to  step  in  if  we  did  not  abate  our  demands.'  I  answered  him, 
'  If  you  speak  to  me  of  Europe,  I  speak  to  you  of  Napoleon.' 
He  would  not  believe  in  this  :  '  From  him  there  was  nothing  to 
fear.'  But  I  proved  to  him  that  he  must  think  of  the  plebis- 
cite, the  peasantry,  and  the  officers  and  soldiers.  The  Guard 
could  regain  their  old  position  only  under  the  Emperor,  and, 
with  a  little  address,  it  would  not  be  hard  for  him  to  get  for 
himself  a  hundred  thousand  of  the  soldiers  who  were  prisoners 
in  Germany.  Then  all  we  had  to  do  was  to  let  them  go  armed 
across  the  frontier,  and  France  would  be  his  again.  If  they 
would  grant  no  good  terms  of  peace,  we  would,  in  the  end,  put 
up  even  with  an  Orleans  prince,  though  we  knew  that  with 
them  the  war  would  break  out  again  in  two  or  three  years.  If 
not,  we  would  interfere,  which  we  have  hitherto  avoided  doing, 
and  they  would  get  Napoleon  again.'  That  must  have  made 
an  impression  upon  him  ;  for  to-day,  when  he  was  going  once 
more  to  speak  about  Europe,  he  pulled  himself  up  suddenly 
and  said,  '  I  beg  your  pardon.'  He  pleases  me,  however,  very 
much ;  he  has  a  fine  intellect,  good  manners,  and  can  teH  a 
story  very  agreeably.  I  was  often  sorry  for  him,  too,  for  he  is 
in  a  bad  position.     But  all  that  cannot  help  him." 

The  Chancellor  came  afterwards  to  speak  of  the  conversation 
he  had  had  with  Thiers  about  the  cost  of  the  war,  and  said, 
"  His  idea  throughout  was  to  agree  to  a  war  indemnity  of  only 
1,600  millions,  for  it  could  not  be  believed  what  the  war  had 
cost  them ;  and  besides,  everything  that  had  been   supplied 


The  War  Indemnity.  S5i 

to  them  had  been  bad.  If  a  soldier  only  tripped  and  fell  down, 
his  breeches  were  at  once  torn,  so  wretched  had  been  the  cloth. 
The  same  with  the  shoes  with  the  pasteboard  soles,  as  wei' 
as  the  arms,  especially  those  from  America,  I  replied,  Yes 
but  just  suppose  that  a  man  were  to  attack  and  try  to  flog  you, 
and  after  having  beaten  him  off,  you  came  to  settle  with  him 
and  demand  reparation,  what  would  y«i  answer  were  he  tc 
appeal  to  you  with  '  You  must  take  into  consideration  that  the 
rods  with  which  I  tried  to  beat  you  cost  me  a  lot  of  money  and 
were  so  badly  made  ]'  Besides,  there  is  a  very  considerable 
difference  between  1,500  and  6,000  millions." 

Thursday,  Febncary  23. — We  are  to  keep  Metz.  The  Chief 
announced  this  distinctly  to-day  at  dinner.  Belfort,  on  the 
other  hand,  there  seems  no  desire  to  keep.  The  entry  of  a  part 
of  our  army  into  Paris  is  now  quite  decided. 

Friday,  February  2Jf. — In  the  morning  we  had  the  brightest 
and  loveliest  spring  weather,  and  the  garden  behind  the  house 
was  filled  with  the  twitter  of  birds.  Thiers  and  Favre  were 
here  from  one  till  half-past  five.  When  they  were  gone  the 
Due  de  Mouchy  and  Comte  de  Gobineau  called  to  complain, 
they  said,  of  oppression  on  the  part  of  the  German  prefects,  like 
the  one  in  Beauvais,  who  is  apparently  governing  harshly,  or 
at  least  not  with  winning  mildness. 

Saturday,  February  25. — Again  unpleasant  news  fron 
Bavaria.  Odo  Russell  is  supposed  to  have  called  in  the  course 
of  the  day,  but  not  to  have  presented  himself  to  the  Chief. 
This  has  led  to  people  saying  that  England  intends  to  interfere 
in  the  peace  negotiations.*  In  the  evening  there  is  a  rumor  that 
the  war  indemnity  to  be  paid  by  the  French  has  been  reduced 
from  6000  to  5000  million  francs,  and  that  the  preliminaries 
of  peace  will  probably  be  signed  to-morrow,  the  consent  of  the 
National  Assembly  in  Bordeaux  being  alone  wanting.  Metz  is 
handed  over.  Our  soldiers  are  to  enter  Paris  next  Wednesday, 
in  order  to  occupy,  to  the  number  of  30,000  men,  that  part  of 
the  inner  town  which  lies  between  the  Seine,  the  Rue  du  Fau- 
bourg Saint-Honore,  and  the  Avenue  des  Temes,  xintil  the 
National  Assembly  has  declared  its  concurrence  in  the  prelim- 
inaries of  peace.  This  "vvill  undoubtedly  come  soon,  and  so  we 
may  turn  our  faces  homewards  in  the  first  week  of  March. 

*  The  Chancellor  told  me  later,  that  on  March  4th,  they  had  only  aXr- 
tempted  it  in  regard  to  the  money  question,  when  it  was  to  late. 


360        Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War. 

Wednesday,  March  1. — In  the  morning  I  went  out  to  the 
bridge  of  boats  at  Suresnes,  and  across  to  the  grassy  plain  of 
Longchamps,  as  far  as  the  Bois  de  Boulogne,  and  looked  on 
from  the  roof  of  the  half-ruined  View-house  of  the  racecourse 
at  the  review  which  the  Emperor  is  holding  of  the  troops  which 
are  to  enter  Paris.  There  were  Bavarian  regiments  among 
them.  They  say  that  the  Guard  is  to  go  home  to-morrow.  At 
dinner,  where  the  Wiirtemberg  Minister  von  Wachter  and 
Mittnacht  joined  us,  the  Chief  told  us  he  had  ridden  into  Paris, 
and  been  recognised  by  the  populace.  No  demonstration,  how- 
ever, had  taken  place  against  him.  One  person,  who  threw  at 
him  a  very  sinister  glance,  and  up  to  whom  he  accordingly  rode 
to  ask  for  a  light,  readily  complied  with  his  request. 

Thursday,  March  2. — Favre  comes  as  early  as  half-past  seven 
in  the  morning,  and  wishes  to  be  announced  to  the  Chief. 
Wollmann,  however,  refuses  to  wake  him,  and  his  Parisian 
Excellency  is  much  put  out.  Favre  has  to  communicate  the 
news  received  during  the  night  that  the  National  Assembly  in 
Bordeaux  has  assented  to  the  Peace  Preliminaries,  and  he  wish- 
es therefore  to  claim  the  evacuation  of  Paris,  and  of  the  forts 
on  the  left  bank  of  the  Seine,  a  request  which  he  left  in  the 
form  of  a  letter. 

Monday,  March  6. — A  beautifully  fine  morning.  Thrushes 
and  finches  warble  the  signal  for  our  departure.  We  must 
breakfast  at  the  Sabot  d'Or,  for  all  our  plate  is  already  packed 
lip.  About  one  o'clock  the  carriages  are  put  into  motion,  and 
we  pass  with  a  light  heart  out  of  the  gate  through  which  we 
entered  five  months  ago,  by  way  of  the  Villa  Coublay,  Villen- 
euve  Saint-Georges,  Charenton,  and  the  pheasantry,  to  Lagny, 
which  we  reached  after  seven  o'clock,  taking  up  our  quarters 
in  two  summer-houses  on  the  right  bank  of  the  Marne,  about 
three  hundred  paces  beyond  the  fallen  bridge. 

From  Lagny  we  went  next  day  by  express  train  to  Metz,  which 
we  entered  late  in  the  evening.  The  next  morning  we  again 
took  train  to  go  by  way  of  Saarbriicken  and  Kreuznach  to 
Mainz,  and  thence  to  Frankfort.  From  this  city,  though  we 
reached  it  late  in  the  evening,  we  went  on  still  further  in  the 
night,  and  by  the  next  morning  at  half -past  seven  we  were  in 
Berlin,  from  which  I  had  been  absent  exactly  seven  months.  It 
was  clear,  on  consideration,  that  as  much  as  was  possible  had 
been  done  in  the  interval. 


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